


The Sea Captain's House - Part 15:  'A Week in the Life' 2034

by Beautyinthemoonlight



Series: The Sea Captain's House [15]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:01:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 85,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22426000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beautyinthemoonlight/pseuds/Beautyinthemoonlight
Summary: This is another look at a week inside the Krieger family, just like Part 8 was in 2029.  This time we'll look at 8 consecutive days in January of 2034, right after the last big installment ended, Part 13 (Part 14 was the Christmas One-Shot that jumped into the future for a minute).Each family member gets a chapter, a little longer than usual, and I included one family day chapter again.I hope you like it.Don't forget there's a Tumblr page devoted to this Series if you're interested in checking it out too.  'beautyinthemoonlight1124' is the blog name.  Heads up for spoilers there though if you're just dropping in to the story.
Relationships: Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger
Series: The Sea Captain's House [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/573217
Comments: 71
Kudos: 96





	1. Drew

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies. Back with a shorter part but I think you'll enjoy it. I hope so. I'll be posting a chapter every other night til all 8 are up.
> 
> And....how are we all doing after that epic real-life wedding that was nothing short of an actual fairy tale?!!! I'm still not over it. What. A. Day. And what a fabulous couple. We've been saying it to each other for a few years now here in the comments, but good Lord what a love Ali & Ashlyn have in real life. Truly, deeply inspiring. And I loved Kyle's line from his speech so much because it's perfect - we (gays) get happy endings too.

Monday mornings were usually one of Drew Krieger’s least favorite times of the entire week. He hated getting up in the morning and hustling to the bus stop by 6:50am. Doing it on Mondays felt twice as awful. This Monday morning though, was the first Monday holiday of the new year. It was 9:45am on January 16, 2034 and Drew was still in his bed, lying there on his back, trying to decide whether or not to get up yet. He didn’t have practice until 3pm so there was no reason to rush anything. 3-day weekends were the best and the teenager, just 4 months shy of his 15th birthday, was trying to figure out why America didn’t convert to a 4-day school/work week like some other countries did. Drew smiled to himself as he realized that he must have been paying attention in his social studies class, otherwise he wouldn’t be aware such a beautiful concept even existed. 

The minutes ticked by and his thoughts moved on to several other subjects in quick, sometimes jarring transitions. It was like looking into a kaleidoscope and turning it much too fast. Thoughts of hitting that clutch jump shot in yesterday’s basketball game spun to the disappointment of still losing the game anyway, then his mind jumped to the strategy plan for the latest level in the most popular video game he and his friends were all playing, then back to how annoying Josie had been all last week, then, for the briefest of moments, to how sorry Drew felt for her being sick yesterday. Sympathy for his kid sister changed in a split second to groaning at how disgusting her puke had smelled, and then careened wildly to remembering how yummy the nachos he had eaten last night for dinner were, then blurred into questions about why Mom couldn’t make them as good as Mama did, and then zipped into excitement about the postcard Mama had brought home with her from Toronto for his MLB ballpark collection. 

Drew turned his head and squinted at the latest addition where it leaned against his nightstand lamp. Why was the postcard so fuzzy? Maybe he did need to get his eyes checked, maybe his mom was right. That was a thought for another time though, not for a holiday Monday. One of Drew’s life goals was to get to every MLB stadium or ballpark, all 30 of them. He’d only been to a handful of them so far and it seemed like a daunting task, but he was determined to achieve his goal. In the meantime, he collected the commemorative postcards each team released, showing a beautiful color photograph on one side and all the specs and details on the other side – it wasn’t an actual postcard you could write on and mail. He yawned and stretched his lanky body all the way out before rolling over onto his side, snuggling back into his pillow and drifting off for another 20 minutes.

Sounds of running bare feet gradually identified themselves in Drew’s foggy brain as he slowly woke up again. It took him a few seconds to figure out what exactly he was hearing, but then all was revealed when he finally heard somebody throwing up in the bathroom he shared with his 10-1/2 year old brother Dodge. Drew could only assume it was his brother and not Josie, but there was no way she would run all the way into the boys bathroom instead of the girls bathroom, which was easier to get to right off the second floor hall. His assumption was confirmed when he heard Dodge moan and then chuckle quietly after flushing the toilet. Only that kid could find even a tiny bit of humor in vomit. Drew wished he had shut his door to the bathroom last night before getting into bed.

“Gross Dodgie” he shook his head and called out with his own groan of disgust.

“Dodge, sweetheart, are you ok?” Ali’s warm, concerned voice carried into Drew’s room, through the bathroom, from Dodge’s room. “Aw, honey...do you feel like you’re gonna be sick again?”

Drew listened for another minute as his mom soothed his brother and tried to assess how likely he was to puke again anytime soon. The teen knew he wasn’t going to get anymore sleep now so he slowly sat up, put his feet on the rug and stood up. He quickened his pace when his feet hit the chilly hardwood floor closer to the perimeter of his room. He picked up yesterday’s socks from the floor and started to pull them onto his feet but then got a waft of their stench and tugged them back off. Part of the reason he hated getting out of bed was because it was always so much colder out here than it was under the covers. He could practically hear his Mama’s voice teasing him about sleeping in just his underwear and how the problem wouldn’t be so bad if he wore pajamas to bed. But he just didn’t like wearing pajamas. He never had and probably never would. All he wanted on him when he was in bed was his tighty whities. But cold mornings like this one made him reconsider PJs every once in a while.

Once he put on socks, sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt, Drew leaned inside the doorframe to the bathroom with his hands in the pouch pocket of his maroon, Gloucester Fishermen hoodie. He wasn’t tall yet but everyone expected him to be a clone of his uncle Kyle. Drew was almost 5’6”, the same height as Ali, and he was skinny. Typical teenage boy – all skin and bones and hormones. His hair was longer than it had been in the past, a couple inches past his regular short style, but it was still dark brown and very thick. It was straight and looked like more of a mop than he wanted to admit. But he was starting to explore his own personality a bit now that he was in high school. That meant growing his hair longer and making terrible fashion choices and being generally obnoxious more often than not. He wrinkled his nose at his brother who had indeed thrown up again, and poked him in the butt with his foot as Dodge knelt in front of the toilet and flushed it once more.

“Move. I need to pee” Drew commanded through a yawn.

“Are you kidding me?” Ali, bent over her sick child and rubbing his back, turned her head and glared at her oldest son. Drew really was a good kid but it was times like these when both his moms wanted to slap him silly. In case he missed the perturbation on her face, Ali’s voice was about as hostile as it ever got with any of the kids. “Find another one.”

“Fine, whatever” Drew rolled his eyes, poked his brother a second time, harder, and slunk back out of the room. “It’s my bathroom too. I’m just saying...” he added for good, obnoxious big brother, measure as he walked away.

“Yeah, well it’s my house and you’re lucky I let you live here at all when you act like that” the brunette retorted, never one to let the sass from any of the kids go unchecked if she could help it.

Drew thumped down the front stairs and went through the front hallway into the mudroom, just to avoid whichever of his sisters he could hear watching tv in the front living room. He’d had enough of annoying siblings already and he’d only been up for 10 minutes.

“Well good morning your highness” Ashlyn bowed with a grin when she saw Drew enter the kitchen and open the refrigerator door. “I trust everything in your chambers was acceptable last night? You certainly slept long enough...”

“Where’s my phone?” he asked, interrupting the blonde’s playful routine as he scanned the counter next to the fridge and frowned. He was leaning on the refrigerator door which was still wide open.

“Stop leaning on the door like that” Ashlyn scowled back, tired of telling him the same thing at least once every single day. “Get what you want and close the door, bud. Geez.”

“Ok, ok” he grumbled as he turned his attention back to the contents of the well-stocked appliance. Frankie and Logan had both trotted in to greet the latest riser of the family. They circled his legs until he absent-mindedly patted their heads. “Where’s my phone?” he repeated the question as he grabbed the large, gallon jug of orange juice and closed the fridge door. 

He moved to the counter next to him, reached up and grabbed a glass, then sloppily poured himself some juice, spilling a bit as he did so. Ashlyn sighed and shook her head, but didn’t say anything. She had learned the hard way that nagging the kids every time they made any kind of mess wasn’t doing anybody any favors. The kids got anxious and self-conscious and angry with her, and she got stressed out and frustrated with them. She tried to count to 10 before saying anything anymore and it had made a big difference in the household dynamics. They only had one teenager so far and both moms knew it was only going to get a lot worse before it got better. If Ashlyn freaked out at every little spill, they’d never make it. None of them.

“It’s right where it should be, on the charging stand in the mudroom” she decided to answer his question instead. 

“But I left it here on the counter last night” he pointed as he put his empty glass down and lifted the jug of orange juice again.

“And your mom plugged it in and charged it for you this morning” the keeper replied with more patience than she thought she would. It irked her when the kids took everything Ali did for them for granted. It was one thing when they were little, but now especially with Drew it really pissed her off. “She thought you had practice this morning...”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell her it got moved to later” he shrugged and shuffled into the pantry to grab something to eat.

“Dude, you’re gonna get stuck without a ride one of these days” Ashlyn warned for the millionth time. “You know you have to tell her this stuff, especially when I’m out of town...”

“Yeah, yeah, I know” he waved his mama off as he emerged from the pantry eating a poptart cold, right out of the package.

Ashlyn raised her eyebrow at the dismissal and silently counted to 10 again. She was trying desperately not to jump all over him first thing in his day.

“It doesn’t seem like you know though. Otherwise you would have told her your practice moved, just like I asked you to do when we texted after your game yesterday” her voice was level but she was right on the verge of losing her temper with the disaffected boy.

Drew moved back to the refrigerator and opened it for another look inside. Ashlyn stopped herself from telling him to put the orange juice back inside at the same time, then started counting in her head again.

“Are we having lunch soon?” he asked, still staring into the fridge.

“In a couple of hours” the keeper paused, “at lunch time.” She took a beat and gave herself a little pat on the back for not delivering the line with the sauce it deserved. 

Only a clueless teenager would come downstairs at 10:15am and expect to have lunch served to him on a platter. Ashlyn smiled softly when she noticed Drew wasn’t leaning on the fridge door this time. Baby steps. Try not to kill him before he can put three or four mature steps together. Baby steps.

“What time is it?” the boy looked at the little clock on the coffee machine nearby. “Oh. Hmmmm...” he pulled open a drawer in the fridge and rooted around for a piece of string cheese to tide him over.

“Do you want some cheesy eggs?” 

Ashlyn heard the words come out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She had just done the very thing that she had been chastising Ali for, all these years. It drove the keeper nuts when Ali, or Deb, or any of the grandparents, went out of their way to make special food for the kids because they had missed a meal or didn’t like what everybody else was eating. It was an old issue for Ashlyn that hadn’t been resolved. And this lazy Monday morning, she had just finished cleaning the kitchen up after a rolling breakfast time for the three other kids. But she knew her son needed to put some fuel in his body after his game yesterday afternoon and before his practice today. It was like the athletic trainer in her pushed the mom aside for a minute.

“Ummm...nah” he shook his head as he took a bite of the string cheese. “I’ll just wait.”

“Are you sure? It’ll just take a few minutes to make. You’re hungry and you’re just gonna eat crap if you don’t get some protein in you” she countered as she began drying the frying pan she had just washed.

“No, I’m good. I’ll have some more cheese or something.” He was still standing in front of the open fridge.

“Drew, you’ve gotta eat better than that if you want to stay sharp on the court, and in the classroom...”

“I’m good Mama” he frowned at her, mumbling around the mouthful he was chewing. “Geez” he shook his head in irritation.

“Fine. Have it your way” Ashlyn sighed but let the topic go. 

Drew rolled his eyes and grabbed another piece of string cheese from the drawer, shoving it shut again but only managing to get it halfway closed. He had already started to step back when he saw the half-open drawer so he reached his foot up and gave it another push.

“Get your foot out of there!” the keeper couldn’t help herself. “You are unbelievable!” she let her free arm drop to her side in exasperation, deep furrows of frustration creased across her forehead. There was no counting that time and if he didn’t get out of her path pretty quickly there would be some harsh words to follow. 

Drew looked surprised by his mother’s reaction to what he thought had been an ingenious way to get the drawer closed. In fact, he was proud of himself for even caring about the drawer in the first place. Ordinarily he would have just shut the fridge door as best he could and moved along. It never once occurred to him that his slightly OCD mother might have strong feelings about seeing his foot inside the refrigerator where most of their food was kept. He hadn’t done it to be a jerk. 

“Sorry, geez” he rolled his eyes again and felt his temper rise from being yelled at for trying to do the right thing and close the damned drawer. “What’s your problem anyway?” he sneered.

“I’ll tell you what my problem is...” Ashlyn began, moving towards the teen and the orange juice spill and the still partially open drawer in the fridge with a glower on her face.

“Ok, well it’s confirmed” Ali exhaled a loud breath as she came down the back stairs at that precise moment. “Dodge has whatever Josie had yesterday. What a mess” she moved to the sink and washed her hands again even though she had done a more than thorough job upstairs after cleaning up the bathroom. “Poor guy.”

As soon as she turned the water off she sensed the tension in the room and quickly turned around to see her wife in the fridge with Drew watching her with curiosity and some anger in his eyes.

“Get outta here” Ashlyn said through clenched teeth when the teen took a step closer to the fridge.

“What’s going on?” Ali asked carefully as she dried her hands and walked halfway across the kitchen towards the two combatants. Things seemed to be simmering down but she could tell by her wife’s face that she was doing everything in her power to keep her cool. “Drew, are you hungry honey? Is that all you’re eating, string cheese?” she meant the question as a conversation changer, something to move them away from whatever they were arguing about. Whoops. “You need to get some food into you so you can be ready for practice this afternoon...”

“I know!” he yelled back without thinking. He grimaced when he saw the stern look that filled Ali’s face. Her eyebrows were up as high as they could possibly go and her head was tilted the way it always was when she was about to yell at someone who had wronged her or someone she loved. “I’ll eat more at lunch” he offered weakly and turned back to Ashlyn and the fridge. There was no contrition in his voice though. “She already nagged me about it. Don’t worry” he rolled his eyes in the keeper’s direction and put an empty string cheese wrapper on the counter. “Can I have more cheese?” he pointed at the fridge drawer that Ashlyn had just closed as he ripped open the second piece already in his hands.

The two moms exchanged a look of aggravation but didn’t say anything. Ashlyn handed him the cheese and he took it without another word. He walked past her into the mudroom, grabbed his phone from the charging stand and went down into the basement.

“I swear to God...that kid” the annoyed keeper shook her head as they watched him go.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to make it worse” Ali apologized through another loud sigh as she picked up the empty cheese wrapper and threw it away in the trash by the sink.

“You didn’t” Ashlyn let her own beleaguered sigh escape her lips. “That was all him.”

Ali picked up the dishcloth from the sink and brought it over to the counter, wiping up the spilled orange juice.

“Did you hear what I said about Dodge?”

“Yeah” the keeper nodded and then made a face as she watched her wife clean up after their oldest son. There was obvious frustration in her voice too. “You know, that’s why he doesn’t do anything on his own. You keep doing everything for him. He thinks his messes automatically just disappear, all on their own.”

“Oh please, like you weren’t just about to do the exact same thing” Ali countered with her own look of annoyance. The idea of Ashlyn and her neat-freak ways letting sticky juice spend any time on the counter was impossible to comprehend. “And I didn’t hear you tell him to do anything about it either” the brunette challenged, with bite.

“I just told him to get out of here before I lost my temper with him” Ashlyn replied sharply. “Why would I tell him to do something that would keep him here longer?”

“Well, don’t blame me then. What are we supposed to do, let the filth just pile up?”

The two women were only a couple of feet apart as they argued but it still took them a few minutes to catch themselves. It happened more and more those days and they both knew there was a lot more of it headed their way with three more teens scheduled to move through the house in the next several years. Ali and Ashlyn had never argued more than they did now, over Drew and his teenage ways. They were guilty of falling into the oldest parent trap in the book – fighting over the kids. They both did their very best to catch themselves before it got too heated, but they were only human and didn’t always succeed.

“Well how is he ever gonna learn?!” Ashlyn yelled.

That was when they caught themselves. They both stopped what they were doing. Ali closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she said something back in anger. Ashlyn slumped her shoulders and let her chin drop down to her chest.

“I’m sorry baby” the keeper spoke first, and quickly. She regretted yelling at her beautiful brunette as soon as she had done it. “God, I’m sorry.”

“Me too” Ali nodded, opening her eyes and taking another big breath. She could see how sincere her keeper’s apology was and it did the trick, almost instantly. 

They both started speaking their regrets and explanations at the same time, facing each other and talking fast.

“I’m just worried about this stomach bug...”  
“He had his foot in the goddamned refrigerator...”  
“Josie seems better today so it looks like just a 24-hour thing...”  
“I even offered to make him cheesy eggs...”  
“We’ve gotta clean everything so we don’t all get sick...”  
“I counted to 10 about 4 different times but I couldn’t help it...”

They both paused for a breath and then laughed at themselves, closing the 2-foot distance with a hug.

“This is so freaking hard” Ashlyn whined, her chin over her wife’s shoulder.

“It is, but we’re getting better. Dr. Emerson will be proud of us next time we see her” Ali joked but knew it was true. 

Their therapist had warned them about parenting teenagers and how challenging it could be. The two moms had dismissed her advice at first – how could someone so young, who had no children yet, know the first thing about the topic anyway? The truth was, most of the conflict in their marriage was about the kids in one way or another. They knew they had their work cut out for them if they wanted to have any semblance of a happy marriage left after all four Krieger teenagers hit the big old house.

“God, I love him so much but I still wanna kill him half the time” Ashlyn admitted with a chuckle as they leaned back. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“It’s ok. I was about to do the same thing to you so...” Ali shrugged as they pulled apart. “I’m sorry too.”

“Ahh, these kids!” Ashlyn exhaled a quiet shout and pulled Ali into another hug. They both sighed into it and held each other close. After a long, quiet moment, the keeper said what they were both praying for. “We won’t let them tear us apart, no matter what. We’re a team, always.”

Ali smiled, cheek to cheek with one of the strongest women and best parents she knew, and then added, “best damned team ever.”

//

Drew spent the next hour or so in the basement playing video games and texting friends and Teri, his current girlfriend. 10-1/2 year old Lily was also in the basement and she alternated watching her big brother play his video game and doing her own thing on her kids tablet. Ashlyn had encouraged her to stay away from Josie, quarantined in the front living room, so she didn’t get sick too. 

Now that Drew was in high school, the dating world had changed significantly. It was serious now. You didn’t just date somebody for the school year because everybody else did it, like in middle school. No sir. Emotions were involved now, accompanied by hormones and heartbreak. Sexual curiosity was peaking too but most freshmen students weren’t doing much about it yet. Teri was another freshman who Drew had known all through middle school. They were in band together and she was very nice and polite and both Ali and Ashlyn liked her a lot. Both moms knew she wasn’t going to last very long though. None of Drew’s girlfriends ever did. There was a new girl who had caught the boy’s fickle eye that winter and he was in the process of figuring out how to break up with Teri so he could start dating Danielle. 

“Hey little people, what’s happening down here today?” Meg greeted them cheerfully as she got to the bottom of the basement steps with Frankie at her heels. She was about to plop down on the couch between her two siblings but stopped at the last second, turning around quickly to look at them both carefully. “You guys aren’t sick, are you?”

Drew shook his head and Lily laughed at the serious face her biggest sister was making. Everybody loved it when Meggie stayed at the big old house. Everybody. This January she was living there for two weeks before the apartment she and Gwen and three other teammates were moving into for their last semester at Boston College was ready. Meg loved living in the dorm but she wanted to move in with her best friends from the team for one final new experience in her college career. The Krieger kids didn’t really care why she was there that month, they just loved that she was.

“No, just Jojo and Dodgie” the girl replied, smiling at the welcome addition of two of her favorite family members. “He threw up” her voice dropped and matched Meg’s serious face as she recounted the sobering news of the morning. “It was disgusting.”

“Yeah, I heard” the redhead, clad much like Drew – in sweats, took her seat, quickly reaching under her butt and pulling out a string cheese wrapper. “Gross you guys, come on” she turned her nose up at the trash and tossed it onto the old white plastic kitchen playset table that had been dragged over and used as a coffee table in front of the couch. “No wonder you’re all always sick” she added, sounding more and more like a mom all the time. 

“It’s only been here for, like, an hour” Drew spoke without taking his eyes off the video game. He deftly executed a complicated combat move and slayed four enemies with an achievement-registering flourish from the game itself. “Relax. Geez.”

“Oooh, good one” Lily commented on the game move. “That’s double experience points for that, right?”

“Ah-huh” he nodded as the level cleared and the game took over with some story-telling visuals that they had all seen a hundred times.

“Logan didn’t come down?” Lily looked up and behind her towards the stairs with disappointment on her face. 

The dogs never knew what to do about the basement. They both liked being near their people and those people were very often in the basement. But if the dogs went down to the basement they missed out on everything that happened, or might happen, in the rest of the house. Frankie was only 1-1/2 years old and she was perfectly happy to run up and down those basement stairs anytime one of her many humans did. But Logan was almost 4-1/2 years old and she was officially not a puppy anymore. She had matured into adulthood and settled down accordingly, as almost all dogs did once they hit 4 years old. Logan liked to nap and, although she had tons of energy when playtime came around, she could be lazy. She was a wonderful teddy bear of a dog who loved to get her pats and scratches whenever possible and from whomever would oblige her. But she was not going to be running up and down stairs just to keep tabs on her young humans. Part of her disinterest in the basement also stemmed from an unfortunate incident where one or some of the kids thoughtlessly left her down there alone and in the dark for a few hours. She just hadn’t gotten to the top of the stairs fast enough one time, and then the family had gone up to the second floor for some reason and her whines had gone unheard. It hadn’t been too traumatic though, and Logan still went down to the basement with enough incentive, but it was never her first choice.

“Nope. She’s curled up on the couch with Jose” Meg answered as she and Lily both petted Frankie who had jumped up between them on the couch. “She’s not moving any time soon.”

“Can dogs get sick?” Lily’s face squished in concentration as she thought hard about the question. “You know, like, from us?”

“No, I don’t think so” Meg shrugged.

“Of course they can’t catch our colds” Drew scoffed and gave his little sister a scornful look. “Don’t be so dumb.”

“Hey, it’s not a dumb question” Meg countered, poking him in the ribs with her elbow. “I don’t know the answer to it anyway, but you sure seem confident about it. Let’s find out.”

Meg picked up Drew’s phone from his thigh and started to research their question. She was probably the only person he would let use his phone without asking and she had done the very same thing a dozen times in the past already. She never snooped around. She just went to the internet and looked up whatever the kids were arguing about if she didn’t have her own phone handy. 

“Hmmm” Meg furrowed her brow as she read conflicting information from different sources. “Dogs definitely can’t catch a cold from us” she kept scrolling and reading. “But this one link says we can give them the flu. Weird.” 

“But this one says you can’t give them the flu” Lily added, leaning over and reading the screen. “So can you or can’t you?”

“I’m thinking no” Meg considered it some more as she skimmed another article. “Ok, technically, if you have swine flu or bird flu or something really crazy like that – THEN you can potentially give it to your dog.”

“So I was right” Drew turned to smirk at them but finished with a grin and a laugh. “Told ya.”

As Meg teased Drew some more and Lily tried to ask what swine and bird flu were, a couple of messages landed on the teen’s phone with loud dings. Meg handed the phone back to its rightful owner but couldn’t help but see the two messages that were sitting there.

They were both from Teri and she seemed upset and hurt.

“Everything ok big guy?” Meg asked quietly, noticing the blush on her brother’s face when he realized she had seen the texts.

“Yeah, ummm, it’s fine” he stammered, getting even redder.

They were all quiet for a minute. Meg and Lily petted Frankie before the blonde girl went back to her tablet game. She was crafty enough to know that if she kept her mouth shut in certain situations and looked like she was doing something else, she might be allowed to stay around and listen in on interesting conversations. Drew was staring intently at his phone, trying to think of what to text back and wishing he was alone in his basement hideaway. Meg waited as long as she could but finally had to speak up. She only wanted to help. She remembered all too well how confusing high school could be in so many different ways.

“You’ve been going out with Teri since school started, right?” she asked evenly, hoping not to get shut down immediately.

“Yeah” he nodded, his voice low and soft.

“I like her. She seems really nice.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“I ummm...” Meg almost chickened out but made herself keep going, “I didn’t mean to see those texts...”

“I know.”

“But..., it seems like you guys are having trouble” she paused, happy that he hadn’t told her to butt out yet. “Do you want to talk about it? I might be able to help...”

“No, that’s ok” he replied quickly, too quickly.

“I won’t tell anybody. I promise” Meg gave his side a little nudge with her elbow.

Drew leaned forward past Meg and stared at his kid sister until Lily looked up innocently.

“What?”

“Beat it” he instructed. He was nicer to Lily than any of his other young siblings and always had been. This was a good example. He would have added an ugly name at the end of his command if it was either Dodge or Josie sitting there. “Now.”

“Fine. I wasn’t even listening anyway” Lily tried to convince them but both Meg and Drew knew better.

“And don’t listen at the door either, you little sneak” Drew added with a knowing look.

When they were sure they were alone, with only Frankie keeping them company, Meg tried again.

“I know you didn’t see each other much over Christmas” she began tentatively. She had a hunch but wasn’t positive it was right. After another long moment of silence from Drew, she pushed forward and prayed she didn’t push too hard. “Is it time to end things and neither of you know how to do it?”

The shocked look on the teen’s face was all the answer Meg needed. Drew tried to recover his cool, quiet demeanor but the relief he felt at being found out made that impossible. He hadn’t been able to ask anybody for guidance up to that point, he just didn’t have it in him to bring the subject up. 

“Kinda” he shrugged as a tiny, relieved smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“Ok” Meg exhaled, relieved herself to have not blown it so far. “Well we can work with that” she smiled softly at him and nodded reassuringly. “If you want to, that is...I mean, we don’t have to...”

“No, I want to” he blurted out. “I, uhhh, ummm...I guess it would be ok” he tried to walk his panicked response back.

“Good” she smiled again. “So what’s going on, are you just not that into her anymore? Or is she not into you or what?”

“I don’t know” he shrugged again and shifted uncomfortably under the weight of the intensely personal topic. “Both, I guess.”

“Well, did one of you do something to hurt the other one? Have either of you been a jerk?”

“No, nuh-uh” he shook his head and lifted sincere eyes to meet Meg’s inquisitive green ones. “She’s nice. And smart...”

“But, what?”

“She’s kinda boring I guess. We don’t really do anything. She plays the saxophone and that’s cool, but, like, that’s all we have to talk about is band.”

“Does she like sports?”

“No” he chuckled and made an eek face, happy to see Meg laugh with him.

“Hmmm...I can see where that might be something fun for you guys to talk about or do together. That’s too bad. Does she not like sports or does she just not play sports?” she paused, thinking carefully. “Because Charlie doesn’t play sports but he likes them and that’s great for me.”

“No, she doesn’t even like them” Drew sighed. “Like, when she comes over and we’re watching soccer she gets bored and leaves. And when I go to her house sports are never on” he explained, opening up the more they talked together.

Meg could tell he was happy to chat about his situation and wondered why he hadn’t done so with either Ali or Ashlyn yet.

“Yeah, that’s a tough one D. This is a sports family and it would have to be somebody pretty special to get you to want to spend a lot of time with them if there was never any sports involved. I get it” she assured him with her easy-going demeanor. “But someday somebody might come along who doesn’t like sports at all, and you might just be ok spending a lot of time with them anyway...”

“No way” Drew shook his head adamantly. “Any girlfriend of mine has to come to my games. And watch Premiere League with me on Saturday and Sunday mornings. And what if I want to bring her to one of the baseball stadiums I’m gonna visit? Is she just not gonna come with me?”

“Oh cool, are you really gonna do that, visit all the baseball stadiums?”

“Yeah, duh” he poked her with his elbow and looked at her like she was crazy. “Definitely. Mama brought me the postcard from the Rogers Centre when she got home last night” he explained with excitement.

“That’s the Blue Jays’ stadium?” Meg asked, knowing Ashlyn had gone to the 2-day owners meetings scheduled after Friday’s NWSL draft in Toronto. When Drew nodded affirmatively she spoke again. “I did not know that.” 

“That one’s not too far away so I really didn’t need her to get that one for me. I mean, it woulda been cool if she had brought one back from someplace farther away is all. But I’m glad she did it” he added quickly, realizing how unappreciative he sounded.

“Ok, so back to your girlfriend...don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve gotta ask” she hesitated and felt her heart tug when she saw the terrified look on Drew’s face. She chose her words carefully. “Is there somebody else who seems more interesting to you right now instead?”

“You mean, another girl?” Drew still hadn’t figured out his sexuality, but as he got older and his hormones began kicking in, it became more difficult to ignore the feelings he was fighting with. One thing hadn’t changed though – he’d still rather die than talk about it. He felt like he had dodged a bullet when Meg hadn’t flat out asked him about boys. “Uhh, yeah, kinda...”

“Kinda what?” Meg chuckled and bumped his shoulder so he knew she wasn’t laughing at him. “Yes or no, Romeo.”

Drew took a few seconds and then took a deep breath before answering.

“There might be a girl on the jv basketball team...”

“Might be huh?” she bumped him again and grinned when she saw him blush and smile. “What’s her name?”

“Danielle” he blushed deeper. “She’s a freshman too, but she’s really good. She floats between jv and varsity. She’s crazy fast.”

“She’s in your grade but you haven’t liked her before now?”

“I dunno” he shrugged and laughed. “She seems...different now.”

“Well we know she likes sports so that checks that box for ya” Meg laughed. “Good plan my man. Good plan.”

They talked about Danielle for a few more minutes before Drew fell quiet again.

“Listen, my best advice is to be honest with Teri...”

“I can’t tell her I like Danielle!” he blanched at the idea and turned to look at Meg in horror. “I don’t even know if she likes me back yet...”

“You can’t wait to break up with Teri until you have somebody else lined up though” Meg frowned gently at him. “That’s a dick move. Don’t do that.”

“But I’m not doing that, not really” he tried to explain, thinking hard about how to say what was happening between he and Teri. “She stopped first.”

“Stopped what?”

“You know, texting me back right away, coming over like she used to, stuff like that.”

“Hmmm...it sounds to me like you’re both ready to move on but neither of you wants to be the bad guy, the one to bring it up” she proposed thoughtfully. “Does that sound right?”

“I don’t know, maybe” he offered as he tried to think. “I guess. That’s why I’m not sure what to say” he lifted his phone up and looked at his big sister.

“Oh hell no” Meg’s eyes went wide and she shook her head dramatically. “You are not breaking up with this girl on your phone. Nuh-uh. No way.”

“Why not? Everybody does it that way.”

“No they do not, and if they do then shame on them. It’s not happening bud” Meg stood up because she was fired up. “Hasn’t Mama had the whole conversation with you about how to treat the people you date and all of that?”

“Yeah, but...”

“Did she leave out the part about breaking up with someone then, because I remember that part very clearly from when she had that talk with me...”

“No, she didn’t” his shoulders slumped.

“Ok then. Don’t make me drag her into this...”

“No! You said you wouldn’t tell anybody!”

“And I won’t, but if you break up with this girl on your damned phone I will let it be known throughout this entire family what you did” she threatened.

She knew he was shy and that was probably what was at the root of this potentially bad behavior, but she wanted to make sure he didn’t send a text to do his dirty work. The shaming she was giving him now was nothing compared to what either of his moms would do. Meg’s tough love was tender in comparison.

“Fine” he crossed his arms and gave her a dark look. “I’ll do it in person. Jesus.”

“Promise me.”

“What? Now you’re being crazy” he scoffed.

“Promise me D” she raised one eyebrow as she stood in front of him with her own crossed arms.

The staredown was brief because Drew knew she was right. Ashlyn had definitely explained to him what a mortal sin it was to break up with someone by any other means but face to face. Meg knew it too. And Drew knew that Meg knew that he knew.

“Promise” he finally pledged, his voice soft and anxious already for the uncomfortable meeting he had just agreed to.

“What was that?” she cocked her head expectantly. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I promise. Ok?” he said louder, a flash of anger in his eyes. “I’ll do it. I promise.”

//

After lunch, where he ate almost twice as much as usual, Drew took the dogs for a walk with Ali and was happy that neither of his moms had given him an ‘I told you so’ about not eating breakfast. The brisk walk in the cold air really got his blood pumping and was peacefully quiet. Drew was grateful that his mom didn’t try to ask him a bunch of questions like she often did when they were alone together. He didn’t mind answering her questions sometimes, but he definitely wasn’t in the mood for it that day. His mind was focused on getting the dreaded meeting with Teri over with. The more he thought about it the more he wanted it to happen as soon as possible, that very day if he could arrange it. As soon as the walk was over Drew called his girlfriend and asked if he could see her before his practice that afternoon. 

Ali was confused when Drew asked her to drop him off at the high school an hour early for practice, but she could tell it was important to him. He was honest and said he was meeting Teri after her jazz band rehearsal. The timing wasn’t perfect because he’d have an extra half hour to kill before practice, but he just wanted to do this before he lost his nerve.

After an awkward but ultimately kind-hearted talk, the two freshmen parted as friends, no longer boyfriend and girlfriend. Teri had admitted similar feelings of disinterest, but both were careful not to be cruel. It was one of the most painless breakups in history and neither of them realized how lucky they actually were. One day they would look back and remember how ill-suited they were for each other, and how little they had invested in the relationship, and laugh about it. But now they both felt unencumbered. Drew was on cloud 9 and practically floated through his jv basketball practice. The intimidating break-up meeting had gone much better than he had hoped and he was proud of himself for conquering his fears and accomplishing the difficult task. 

Drew went home with Ethan after practice and stayed there for dinner. The two best friends relaxed and played video games in Ethan’s living room, painfully aware of how much less privacy they had at the Machado residence than they did in the Krieger basement. It was a tough call though. The Krieger basement was nice, but the big old house was always busy and full of siblings and other kids. There were pluses and minuses to both homes for Drew and Ethan.

“Thanks Sam” Ashlyn waved later that evening as she met Drew at the mudroom door. Sam returned the wave and backed down the long driveway into the dark.

“You all set for school tomorrow?” the keeper asked her son as she watched him kick his boots off and dump out his basketball gear in the middle of the mudroom floor. 

Drew Krieger was a procrastinator when it came to schoolwork and both his moms knew they had to ask early and often about school deadlines and project due dates if there was any hope of him getting things done on time. They had stopped trying to change him and just focused on helping him learn to live with the bad habit until he was old enough to understand why he was doing it. In another twist of DNA and biology – Ashlyn had been a procrastinator most of her life too, but Ali hadn’t. Ali liked to get her homework done on Friday so she didn’t have to worry about it all weekend. Ashlyn, and Drew, were the opposite. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? It was only after Ashlyn started working with her therapist more, back in the early days with Ali, that she began to understand what procrastination was and how to train herself to avoid it. When Drew was old enough they would help him learn it too.

“Ummm...” he paused to think, squinting a little with the effort as he greeted Frankie and Logan. “Oh yeah, I hafta do my World Geography project tonight.”

He got down on his knees to love up the dogs properly, not a glimmer of concern about the report anywhere in his being. Ashlyn, meanwhile, was about to have a fit.

“A whole report?!” her jaw dropped. “Tonight?!”

As she started to get wound up, Josie’s quieter than usual voice piped up from the front living room where she’d been stationed all day, recovering.

“He’s gonna use a big map he made on the computer. It’s really cool.”

“What’s really cool?” Ali joined them in the mudroom, bending over to kiss Drew’s head and then studying the more than concerned look on her wife’s face. “Uh oh, what’s the matter now?”

Ashlyn still couldn’t speak, but Drew stood up and began explaining how he had designed and drawn maps and geographic charts for his project.

“All I’ve gotta do is print them all out” he shrugged, still not sure why his Mama was having a silent fit.

“That sounds great” Ali smiled at him warmly. “But you’re gonna need those in color, right? And probably on some bigger paper?”

“Yeah, so?” he asked even as the problem slowly dawned on him. “Oh. We don’t have that here, do we?”

“Oh my...” Ashlyn whispered as she tried to regain some composure.

“No” Ali sucked in a breath and then sighed. “We’ll have to go to Staples and hope the wait isn’t too long.”

“Aw, right now?” Drew slumped his shoulders and whined.

“Yes right now” Ashlyn had found her voice and was trying to stay calm. “It might take a long time if there’s a line or if there’s other people who waited until 7:15pm the night before their project was due” her clenched jaw was the only thing that gave away her annoyance level and she was happy about that. She considered it a small personal victory in a day that had not provided many other parenting wins for her.

“Do you have other homework still to do?” Ali asked tentatively. She was truly afraid of the answer. “Midterms are next week, you’ve got studying to do, don’t you?”

“I’ve got some Algebra to do...” he started to walk into the front living room as he spoke, “but it won’t take long. And I’ve been studying...”

“He has not” Josie chirped again.

“Shut up, doofus” he sneered at his sister from his place just inside the doorway. “You’re such a...”

“Enough” Ashlyn cut him off before he could say something hurtful, as deserved as it might be under the circumstances.

“That’s enough out of you too, young lady. Just mind your own business” Ali poked her head into the front living room and gave Josie a stern look. “Nobody likes a tattle tale.”

After a brief debate about who would take Drew to Staples, and who would stay home to tend to the nearly recovered Josie and the still pretty pukey Dodge, Ashlyn backed the Jeep out of the driveway. She had made Drew bring his Algebra homework with him so he could do it while they were waiting for the printing to be done. It wasn’t how anybody wanted the end of the long holiday weekend to be spent. But such was life in the big old house those days.

Later that night after returning with his Algebra homework done and project printing completed, Drew took his shower and got ready for bed. It was only 8:45pm and he didn’t normally get under the covers until 9:00pm or so, but he had three chapters to read for English class that he hadn’t mentioned to his moms earlier and he wanted to get into bed and finish that too. The evening had definitely gotten away from him and he was starting to feel the pressure from procrastinating. He wished he had done the reading over all 3 nights instead of leaving such a large number of pages for himself to tackle now. Oh well. Nothing left to do but suck it up and get it done. He let out a loud sigh and opened to his bookmark in ‘Of Mice and Men’, but he hadn’t gotten more than a few pages read before there was a soft knock on his door. He could hear his moms getting the other kids into bed and patted himself on the back for remembering to close his door to the bathroom before getting under the covers. One of them always came to say goodnight, sometimes they both did. If he was still downstairs at the younger kids’ bedtime, he knew he would get a visit from his mom or mama when they came upstairs at 9pm to collect electronic devices for the night. There was no avoiding them, whether he wanted to or not. They could be annoying and nosy but, for the most part, he didn’t feel the need to avoid them too often. He still enjoyed hanging out with his parents, even though he’d never admit that to any of his friends. Sometimes they were too much, too strict, too intrusive, too old...but not all the time. They were all trying to figure out how to be the close family they had always been, while letting Drew fly a little freer every day. It wasn’t easy. As his mind wandered a bit, he heard another knock.

“Yeah?”

“Hey honey” Ali smiled as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. She crossed the floor, willing herself not to bend over and pick up the dirty clothes along the way, and sat on the edge of Drew’s bed. “Got some reading to do too, huh?” she gave him a loving smile, hoping to put him at ease and let him know she wasn’t there to nag him about anything.

“Yeah, just a little” he gave her a small smile in return. 

Ali leaned towards him and put one hand on his forehead and the other on his neck, searching for signs of sickness.

“How you feeling? I tried to keep the sickos away from everybody but there’s no guarantee...”

“I’m ok” he pulled back from the maternal touches but offered another small smile to help keep the peace. “Mom, stop” he chuckled when Ali playfully put her hands all over his head and neck and shoulders with a goofy look on her face.

“Oh alright” she giggled and tilted her head slightly as she looked at her sweet boy. She felt her heart pang as she missed using that loving moniker for her first born. When was the last time she had called him that? 

“What?” he cocked his own head in response to the pensive gaze from his mother. “Really, I’m not sick.”

“No, I know” she patted his hip next to her and smiled widely. “I just like looking at ya, that’s all. I love you, you know.”

“I know” his own smile grew at the soft exchange.

“I know you’re getting so grown up now, and you don’t need your moms like you used to, but I want you to know we’re still here for you – for whatever you need.” She was glad to see him blinking back attentively and kept going. “And I really want you to know how much I love you. Always. No matter what” she took a beat to swallow hard and implore herself not to cry. “Make sure you remember that for me, ok?”

As hard as Drew tried to be a big tough teenager, whenever one of his moms was sweet like this he melted. He didn’t like when it happened in front of anybody else, but one-on-one like this...that was pretty great. He couldn’t imagine his friends having heartfelt moments like this with their parents though. It just wasn’t something 14-1/2 year old boys could grasp. He often wondered if he was too much a wimp because of how much he loved these moments. But like so many other things that crowded his changing brain those days, he would worry about it later. For now it was nice to hear that his mom still loved him. Really nice.

“Ok mom” his face filled with a low-level beam and he reached out his hand and let her hold it. “Love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fucking shit CONCACAF!!! Get your shit together!!!! No broadcasting deal for Olympic qualifying games until 2 days before??!! Unbelievable. Unacceptable. Ridiculous. I read that they've been trying to package the rights to the USWNT qualifying with 'other' CONCACAF things and the broadcasters didn't want anything but the women. Ha! The irony is too perfect! Apparently Fox is going to be airing the games, but that's all I've read so far.


	2. Josie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's go USA!!!!!!!! First game of Olympic Qualifying tournament tonight!! LFG!!!!

Tuesday was a much better day for the 7th grade redhead than either of the last two had been. That was for sure. Sunday had been a blur of stomach flu sickness that had seen Josie throwing up several times over the course of the day. She had gone to bed Saturday night feeling like a superstar after acing her ‘District’ auditions, but then puked her guts out in the middle of the night. Monday had been better than Sunday but she still hadn’t felt great. It was one of those recovery days where you weren’t officially sick anymore but you were so depleted and drained from being sick that you weren’t really well either. She had been well enough to insert herself into Drew’s last-minute school project drama last evening, that was for sure. And her appetite had even returned in time for dinner last night too. 

“How you feeling, honey?” Ali asked softly as she sat on the edge of Josie’s bed Tuesday morning, cool hand on the 12-1/2 year old’s forehead. 

“Mmmm...” Josie half hummed - half whined, as her eyes slowly fluttered open for the first time that morning. 

She was curled up on her left side, facing the room and her mother, and she was initially annoyed by being woken up. Then, after a few seconds of quiet, and her mom’s soft, soothing hand on her face and neck, Josie remembered where she was and what day it was and that she had implored her mom to make sure she was awake as usual at 6am.

“Morning” Ali smiled, still clad in her pjs because she was about to get into her own shower and start her day. “How’s your belly?” she asked hopefully. 

The stomach flu was the worst, in Ali’s opinion anyway. It was hard to contain and usually spread like wildfire among the kids, and, because she couldn’t handle vomit, Ashlyn wasn’t very helpful. The keeper could and did take care of the kids’ needs while they were in bed or on the couch sick. She waited on them and brought them the few sick-stomach approved food and drink items that were different for each kid, believe it or not. She did laundry, sometimes holding her nose and turning her head away if there was any puke on it, and tried her best to do as many non-vomit related tasks as possible. But when it came time for those desperate sprints to the bathroom and the nauseating hurling that followed, Ashlyn was useless. She couldn’t help with the clean-up afterward either, at least not the initial, messy work. She was great for sanitizing the bathrooms after Ali mopped up the stray puke with paper towels, but that was about it. 

It was better than nothing and the brunette was grateful for the help. But boy did she hate her keeper’s vomit weakness every time she flew out of bed in the middle of the night to run and help whichever child was trying to make it to the toilet in time. That sucked and there was no other way to say it. Saturday night with Josie had been awful but, luckily, Dodge hadn’t thrown-up last night. His illness had started later in the morning than Josie’s had the day before. It meant he was likely to miss an extra day of school because of the timing of it, but Ali wasn’t sure yet. Josie got sicker faster and stayed sicker longer, usually, than the other kids did. It had been that way all their lives. Maybe Josie’s 24-hour stomach bug would only last 18 hours with Dodge. The brunette could hope anyway.

“It’s good” the redhead replied with a yawn and a stretch. 

She finished by rolling onto her back and holding her mother’s hand to her chest, right alongside the weathered and faded teddy bear she’d slept with every night of her life so far. She used two hands to hold them both to her chest as she blinked up at Ali with pure adoration. The brunette felt her heart burst at the affection from the girl who was teetering on the edge of becoming a difficult hormonal teenager. Moments like this one right here were like winning the lottery for her parents. Those brief flashes of unedited, pure love were what kept Ali and Ashlyn from completely losing their tempers with Josie every other time she opened her sometimes demanding mouth. 

“Are you sure?” Ali used her other hand to feel the redhead’s cheeks and then forehead again. Gauging whether or not Josie had a fever was not easy. The girl ran hot and had been affectionately called ‘the little furnace’ by her adult family all her life. She often woke up sweaty and was rarely cold in the wintertime. It’s just how her body worked, and it was a lot like Ali’s. But after 12-1/2 years, both Ali and Ashlyn could tell what kind of hot her forehead was, most of the time. This morning’s hot was normal. “You don’t have a temp anymore, did you sleep ok?”

“Ah-huh” the girl nodded and then yawned again, stretching her legs out, still holding onto her teddy bear and Ali’s hand. Josie paused and tried to check in with her own body, a serious look on her round, pink face. “I’m ok. I’m hungry, but that’s it.”

“Well that’s good news” Ali leaned forward and kissed her daughter’s forehead, happy to feel Josie wrap her arms around and give her a hug. Another jackpot moment! As she sat back up once those thin arms released her, Ali spoke again. “But I want to make sure you feel ok to go to school” the brunette gave her a serious nod. “I know it’s results day, but we can get them here at home tonight too...”

Josie’s face jumped into an enormous grin and her deep blue eyes danced with excitement.

“You remembered!”

“Well of course I remembered, silly” Ali chuckled. “Mama and I can’t wait to see your name on that list, probably more than one” she winked at the girl who beamed back at her. “We were just talking about it last night before we went to sleep. Are you excited?”

“Sooooo excited!” Josie squealed and grabbed both of her mother’s hands, letting the teddy bear slide under her arm for safe keeping. “Mr. Fitzpatrick said he’s gonna post the results right after lunch. I can’t wait!”

“Will that be for the chorus too, or just orchestra, concert band, and jazz band?”

“No, he won’t get chorus” the redhead continued breathlessly. “But Mrs. Jenkins will put those up as soon as she gets them. Probably the same time, don’tcha think?” her forehead creased as she tackled the new question as it popped into her head for the very first time.

“I’m sure they’ll both post the acceptance lists as soon as they get them” Ali tried to reassure her, squeezing her still smallish hands in her own. “Make sure you eat your lunch though, ok?” she cautioned. “I know it’s exciting honey, but you’re just getting over this stomach thing. You don’t have a lot of gas in the tank so you need to eat lunch.”

“Yeah, ok” Josie waved her off with only the look on her animated face.

“Promise me Jose” Ali gave her the serious mom face and cocked an eyebrow to be sure she got the message.

“I promise.”

“I just don’t want you to get sick again, love...”

But Josie was too amped up now for more talking. She sat up quickly, dropped Ali’s hands along with Teddy, shoved her glasses on her face, hopped out of bed, and walked quickly to her closed bedroom door. Josie was still small for her age, she was the same height as Lily and her blonde younger sister was a little thicker and sturdier than she was too. Lily and Josie were 4’ 6” tall and the average height for a 7th grader like the redhead was 4’11”. But Josie was starting to grow a little bit more and both her moms were optimistic that she would at least keep pace with her younger sister over the next few years. If Lily turned out to be tall like Ashlyn then there was no hope, but they were all hopeful that tiny Josie wouldn’t always be quite so tiny. 

The faster the redhead took her shower, got dressed, and ate breakfast that morning, the faster she could get to the bus stop and then to school. That was her plan, apparently. It made no sense, she couldn’t make the school bus come any sooner, but Ali didn’t try to slow her down. She knew better than anyone that there was no stopping miss Josephine Krieger when she was on a mission like this today. As the skinny girl pulled the door open she turned back towards her bed and her mother, who was watching her and grinning.

“Thanks for waking me up Mom. I can’t wait to get to school today!”

//

‘District’ was the shorthand name everybody used for the Massachusetts Music Educators’ Association (MMEA) District Festival that took place every year. There was a junior festival for kids in grades 7–9; and the top draw event was the senior festival for grades 9-12, the high school kids. 9th graders were afforded the luxury of participating in either one, depending on their skill level. Josie had been chomping at the bit to get to 7th grade so she could finally audition for, and hopefully participate in, the music festival on at least one of her instruments or her voice. There was a distinct possibility that she would qualify for all four groups that she auditioned for – she was that good. 

The Senior Festival took priority, rightfully so, and it went first. Auditions were in November, and a week of rehearsals in mid-January culminated in the festival concerts on the last Saturday of that week. There was an orchestra concert, a concert band concert, a jazz band concert, and a chorale concert. The students who were selected to participate in any of those ensembles received their music shortly after the results were posted. They practiced their asses off for roughly two months and then met for the Festival week of rehearsals and then end of week performances. The very best of the best from the Senior Festival were invited to participate in the All-State Festival at the beginning of March. They received new music and practiced for 6 weeks before regrouping and having another week of rehearsals with following performances.

The Junior Festival followed the exact same format, but without the All-State option, and two months later. Junior Audition times were posted the day after the Senior Festival ended in January, and then the auditions took place a week or two later, depending on the calendar in any given year. The Junior Festival week of rehearsals took place in mid-March with the performances on Saturday, March 18th. Josie had spent all day this past Saturday at a grammar school in Methuen, Massachusetts waiting for her turns to audition for all four possible concert groups. She crushed her first flute piece at 8:15am for Concert Band. Then she blew everybody away with her piano performance for jazz band at 10:45am. After everybody took a break for lunch, she was back at it with a vocal audition for the chorale group at 1:30pm which she also aced. Finally, she performed a very difficult piece for the flute for her orchestra audition at 3:00pm. She had played almost flawlessly but knew it probably wasn’t going to be good enough. Her private lesson teacher had told her that she had to aim extremely high to get into District orchestra, and that meant choosing a challenging piece of music and then nailing it at the audition. Josie wasn’t sure she had pulled it off. 

Ali had been with her every step of the way, although from the guardian waiting area that had been set up in the school cafeteria for all the nervous parents. Nobody was allowed in the auditorium or practice areas except for the student musicians themselves. It was the Kriegers’ first time at District auditions and everybody knew it certainly wasn’t going to be their last. Josie was too good. The entire family knew the redhead would compete every year from now until she graduated high school and that she would shine every year too. The brunette learned a lot that long, nerve-wracking Saturday. Next year they, either she or Ashlyn, would be better prepared for the exhausting and stressful day. Some of the other parents were nice enough to share some helpful tips, while others were icily cutthroat in their own little competitive worlds. That didn’t faze Ali though. She had been around parents like that all her life, although it had always been in soccer and sports. The music world was just as competitive and the brunette chastised herself for not expecting it. Those parents existed, whether their kids were competing at sports or music. Nothing was different except the activity and the wardrobe.

“So how did she do? How was it?” Ashlyn rattled off several questions in a row late Saturday afternoon as she talked to her wife over the phone from the NWSL owners meetings in Toronto. It killed the keeper to miss such a momentous occasion in her daughter’s life. “Did she have a meltdown, you know, like she used to if things didn’t go her way?” Ashlyn’s voice dropped for the last question, afraid of the answer.

“No, she was great, at least what I saw of her anyway. She came out and sat with me after each audition. They could only be in the practice rooms a half hour before the audition so all the kids kept coming and going, at least the ones who were doing more than one audition anyway” Ali explained quickly, knowing her wife had a limited window of time between the end of the meeting and the fancy dinner she was on her way to. “She seemed totally fine. She looked happy and content.”

“She was in the zone” the keeper nodded knowingly and smiled. “God, I’m so happy for her. This is her thing Al. No doubt about it.”

“I know. It was incredible to see, honestly” Ali went on. “So many kids and they all seemed to handle it differently. Some were completely stressed out. Some were completely unbothered. This one girl took a nap between her auditions!”

“No way.”

“I swear” Ali chuckled. “Jose was pretty chill but there’s no way she’d nap. She was too excited. Her face was a big smile all day long.”

“Really? Like, as big a smile as when she first met Ariel at Disney World?” 

“Yeah, kinda. I don’t know how to explain it babe. She was that happy and excited today, for sure, but she was totally at ease too. Remember how shy she got with Ariel?”

“Yeah, she barely said a word” the keeper thought back to when Josie had been 2-1/2 years old and experiencing Disney World for the very first time. The young redhead had been brave with Minnie Mouse at the character breakfast, but had changed her tune when face to face with her most favorite Disney character of them all. Josie loved the redheads and Merida was a close second, but Ariel was a singer. Even at that young age music had made a difference. “She tried to hide behind your legs...”

“Yes! Well, she wasn’t shy or afraid today at all. She fed off of it. She got more and more confident after each audition.”

“Wow. Even the orchestra one?”

“No, well, that’s hard to tell” Ali pursed her lips as she considered the question. “I think she’s coming down with something, but I hope I’m wrong. I think she might be running a temp, maybe she’ll feel it when she comes down from the excitement of today. But ‘The Wasps’ she said she messed up in that really high, fast middle section...” the brunette referenced the piece of music Josie had played for her difficult orchestra audition.

“That’s such a hard piece though, I wondered about picking that one.”

“It was the right pick. You should have seen some of the other audition pieces” Ali sucked in a breath with wide eyes. “I’ve never seen so many music notes in one piece before – ever. The pages were almost completely black with notes. If she wants to get into the orchestra, she made the right choice. She just couldn’t quite pull it off. But she said she only made one mistake and that she didn’t let it rattle her for the second half, thank God.”

“What happens when she doesn’t get in?”

“Well, we hope that she gets into at least one of the of the other groups I guess.”

“How is she now?”

“She’s ok. We got home about 20 minutes ago and she’s upstairs telling Meg all about it” the brunette giggled. “I don’t think the adrenaline has worn off yet.”

“This was the first time she’s ever been challenged, you know” Ashlyn’s voice was full of emotion. “The first time she was ever with kids at her own skill level. It’s a big deal.”

“I know babe” Ali’s voice was soft and soothing and she was touched by how moved her sweet keeper was. “This is just her first year. Now she knows what it’s all about and she’ll be better prepared next year, and I don’t just mean the music.”

“You’re right” Ashlyn blew out a big breath and cleared her throat, trying to get her composure back. “Thanks for doing all that today baby. You’re a great mom.”

“I’m sorry you missed it. I know it was important to you. But you can go next year. Just make sure the NWSL draft doesn’t keep getting in the way” she giggled. “You’re a big owner now, you can do that, right?” she teased.

“Oh yeah, right” Ashlyn laughed out loud. “I’ll move the draft right after I give everybody raises and finally get the Spirit to have a Pride night. Ha!” they both laughed.

“Want to talk to her?”

“Nah, I don’t want to pull her away from Meg. Tell her to call me later, after dinner.”

“You got it.”

“I’m so excited for her Al” the emotion was back in the keeper’s voice again. “I feel like a whole new world just opened up to her. I can’t wait to watch her fly.”

//

When the final bell rang at 2:07pm to signal the end of the school day, Josie jumped out of her seat and made a b-line for her locker. She had been dying for the last 90 minutes, unable to use her phone at school to share her exciting news. When she turned it on, some texts popped up from 10 minutes earlier.

Mama: Can I pick you up from school today?   
Mama: I’m dying to hear your audition results!!   
Mama: I can’t wait for you to get home on the bus. I can’t last that long! I’m losing my mind not knowing!!!

All three texts were from Ashlyn and Josie grinned when she read them. Ordinarily she preferred to take the bus because it was a tangible symbol of how grown up she was getting. It made her feel more independent when she took the bus. But that day she would make an exception. She texted back quickly and then gathered the rest of her books and her flute and music from her locker and made her way towards the front of the school where the buses lined up waiting for passengers. Josie paused at the last corner before the main entrance hallway and waited for her bestie, Kayla. They rode different buses, but they always walked out of school together, unless they had play rehearsal or some other school activity.

“My mom’s coming to pick me up today, do you want a ride home too?” she asked Kayla as she stopped in front of the office.

“Yeah, sure” Kayla replied eagerly. “How come though? Do you have to go somewhere?”

All of the best friends of the Krieger kids had spent time in one of the family vehicles as Ali or Ashlyn drove siblings to one place or picked them up from someplace else. Sometimes it was a quick pitstop and other times it took longer. 

“No, just home” the redhead thought for a second and added, “but we’re probably gonna get Dodge and Lily from school too...”

That meant 20 extra minutes because East Gloucester Elementary School didn’t get out until 2:30pm. The concept of a ride home saving time over the longer bus ride would not be in play that afternoon with the extra twin pick-up.

“Oh, uh, no thanks” Kayla smiled sheepishly. “Thanks anyway though” she added as she started to move towards the main entrance again. “Call me later and we can talk about the science project” she called over her shoulder.

“Ok, I will” Josie called back with a wave.

“Hey Jojo” Ashlyn spoke quietly once the redhead came into the office to get officially signed out for the day – it was the rule if you didn’t get on the bus like you were supposed to.

Ashlyn knew instantly that her daughter’s audition results had been good because if they hadn’t been, Josie’s face would have been a permanent scowl. The keeper stood as quietly and calmly as possible just inside the office door. She wanted to jump up and down and yell her excitement, but she knew making such a scene would mortify Josie, so she stood with her hands clasped behind her back, bouncing just slightly on her toes instead. It was as low-key as she could get in that moment.

“Hi Mama” the girl grinned and walked into a big hug from her mother. Even a grown-up 7th grader like Josie appreciated a hug on a big day like today.

“So...?” Ashlyn’s eyebrows were up to her hairline and her face twitched with nervous excitement as they pulled apart. 

“I made it” Josie beamed up at her Mama, her own exhilaration shining through.

“Yes!!” Ashlyn fist-pumped and tried hard not to yell too loudly. She pulled the girl into another hug. “Oh Jojo I’m so proud of you, and happy for you. Way to go, honey. Great job.”

“I didn’t get into orchestra though” the redhead admitted softly as they left the office and started making their way to the Jeep. Ashlyn kept her arm draped around Josie’s shoulder as they walked. “I just missed the cut” she added dejectedly.

“Aw, I’m sorry, sweetheart” the keeper squeezed her shoulder and pulled her into a side hug as they walked. “I know that’s disappointing.”

“Yeah. I really wanted that” Josie sighed heavily and dropped her eyes.

Ashlyn let her have her moment of disappointment because she knew Josie hadn’t shared that with anybody at school yet. She wouldn’t show that vulnerability in public if she could help it. She opened the back door to the Jeep for Josie to climb in and, once she was settled in her seat, the keeper gave her closest knee a squeeze.

“It’s ok to be disappointed, mad even” she locked eyes with her daughter as she spoke, delivering heartfelt advice that had always served her well in her own life. “You use those feelings though. Make them work for you. You remember this feeling right now, this moment right here, and you work hard so you don’t feel this way next year. Do you understand what I’m saying baby girl?”

“Yeah” she nodded, her face still a combination of sad and serious. “I do.”

“Good” Ashlyn put her palm out and Josie gave her five, followed by a fist-bump and a finger wiggle. It was their own little handshake and it was about 4 years old but they hadn’t been able to come up with one they liked better. “That’s my girl. Now let’s call your mom because she’s dying to know too.”

Josie was surprised to be heading right home and she would have asked her mother about it if she hadn’t been so busy chatting with Ali.

“What about Dodge and Lily?” she asked finally as she hopped out of the Jeep in the driveway of the big old house.

“Oh, yeah” Ashlyn groaned as she held the mudroom door open for the redhead. “They’re both home sick today. Prepare yourself” she warned.

“Oh geez” Josie shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“Hey, you’re the one who brought the plague home in the first place” Ashlyn teased her as they greeted the dogs and put their stuff down on the bench so they could take their boots and coats off. “Make sure you wash your hands a lot and stay away from them, unless you wanna get sick again.”

“No thank you” she laughed and moved right into the dining room to get her homework started. “Where are they, so I know where NOT to be” she giggled.

Dodge wasn’t really sick anymore and probably could have gone to school, but Ashlyn and Ali had decided not to risk it so he stayed home with his very sick twin sister. Lily had woken up not feeling great but hadn’t thrown-up until she got to the nook table for breakfast. The 24-hour stomach bug had struck again and Ashlyn had no choice but to deal with it because Ali had to go to work that day. The brunette went in late so she could clean up Lily’s mess though. She knew that Ashlyn would practically sit on top of the girl for the rest of the day, trying to make sure she vomited in the small trash can next to the couch instead of on anything else. If all else failed, Meg would be home in the afternoon to bail the blonde out.

“Soooooo??!!” Meg asked from the kitchen when she heard voices in the mudroom. “What’s the word Jojo? The suspense is killing me!”

The two redheads sat together in the dining room and Josie shared all the news with her big sister. They talked for almost an hour and then Josie texted with some of her drama friends who went to different schools in neighboring Cape Ann towns. She talked to Kayla about the science project they were working on together. And then she started her homework. As much as she liked to get it done and over with as soon as possible, she had exciting news to broadcast today and she wasn’t going to wait. The person she really wanted to share it with was James Dwyer, but he was at basketball practice so she would have to wait until after dinner for that.

//

It was 6:45pm and the big old house was full of post-dinner activity that Tuesday evening. It was strange but wonderful to have all the kids home at the same time on a weeknight. Once the youth sports practices and other activities started up they would all be scattered around again. Lily had missed her private flute lesson that afternoon from 4-5pm because she was still throwing up. She was sacked out on the big couch in the front living room, too spent to do anything but sleep and stare vacantly at the kids shows on the tv. She hadn’t joined the family for dinner because she was in the Krieger quarantine mode, and because the last thing she wanted to do was even smell any kind of food. Ali had gone in right after dinner and sat with her for a while, encouraging her to have some of the protein drink that would help keep her strength up, but only Logan spent any real dedicated time with the sicko that evening.

Dodge was feeling much better. He had eaten like a horse the day after his own bout with the troublesome stomach bug and dinner had been no exception. He inhaled his dinner and was downstairs with Meg and Frankie playing a video game and trying not to overdo it on his first day back to relative health. Dodge typically had basketball practice on Tuesdays from 5-6pm but none of the youth sports had started up again. This Saturday would be the first games back for both twins and Josie. Ashlyn still coached all three teams.

Drew was muttering to himself in the kitchen as he rinsed the dinner dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher. It wasn’t his turn to do the dishes that night but Ashlyn had tapped him to help her fill in for Lily and he wasn’t very happy about it. Drew’s high school JV basketball games were usually Tuesday and Friday evenings at 7pm but this week, because of the odd holiday weekend game on Sunday, his only game was Friday night. He had no reason not to help his Mama in the kitchen for 30 minutes or so, no matter how hard he wracked his brain to think of a plausible excuse.

“There, was that so bad?” Ashlyn hip-checked the teen when they were done and then pulled him into a side hug before he could escape. “Thank you for stepping up bud. I won’t forget it.”

“Can I go now?”

“Yes. But don’t forget to practice...”

Drew didn’t want to practice his trumpet that night so he quickly offered resistance.

“Yeah, I know, but I gotta finish my reading first.”

Ashlyn pursed her lips and watched him slope into the dining room, grab the book with the unfinished chapters from the night before, and plop himself down on the couch in the family room.

“You’re just making the rest of the week harder on yourself. But do it your way” the keeper squeezed his foot at the closest end of the couch on her way by. “Enjoy your book” she chuckled and continued into the dining room where she expected to find Josie.

“Hey, now might be a good time to talk to her about next year” Ali was suddenly by her side, having followed her progress after leaving Lily in the front living room and walking through the kitchen in search of her wife.

“Jesus! You scared me” Ashlyn gasped out, her heart racing and her hand clutching her chest. 

“Aw, I’m sorry babe. Wasn’t trying to go all ninja on ya” Ali wrapped her arms around the terrified blonde from behind and pressed her cheek into her back. “But what do you think?” she asked after giving Ashlyn a minute to collect herself. It was nice there in the empty dining room with just the two of them. “She’s in there reading” the brunette nodded towards the front parlor which had always been one of Josie’s favorite rooms, and not just because it was where the piano lived. It was one of Ali’s favorite places to read too and the little redhead had always wanted to be like her mommmy in every way.

“Yeah, might as well” Ashlyn nodded and patted her wife’s hands around her own waist. “Today will make it easier to explain too.”

“Hey honey, can we talk to you for a minute?” Ali asked with a warm smile when they stepped over the gate that still blocked the room from the dogs. 

Several years ago they had upgraded the two gates, one at each entrance to the front parlor, to the kind with railed doors that opened with an easy release latch once the kids were old enough to be trusted in the special room full of family heirlooms and priceless mementos. It was still a gate that the dogs could see through if they chose to lay there and watch wistfully from the other side. Both Ali and Ashlyn still stepped over the gates, even though the door option was there for them – it was just a habit that they found hard to break. They’d been stepping over gates there for almost 15 years. It would take some time to get used to opening a gate door instead.

Josie looked up at them a little guiltily from her spot on the love seat next to the bay window. She sat a little slouched with her legs hanging down the front of the comfortable, slightly raised sofa, finally long enough so her feet hit the floor. Both moms saw the book she was supposed to be reading open on her lap, but it was her phone that was in her hands.

“Yeah, ok” she quickly put the phone down and lifted the book up again.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be reading in here” Ashlyn raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t look too upset. She knew it was a big day for the redhead and she couldn’t blame her for wanting to talk to her friends about her good fortune and accomplishments. “Who are you texting with?” Ashlyn winked as she and Ali approached the love seat and the sheepish girl.

“It’s just James” she shrugged and tried to play it off like she hadn’t been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing while getting her homework finished for the night. Her soft, apologetic smile grew as she spoke, without her even being aware of it. That happened a lot when she talked about her bestest friend of all of her best friends. “He had practice so I couldn’t talk to him before now...”

“It’s ok” Ali smiled too as she sat on the loveseat next to her. She patted Josie’s leg to make sure she knew she wasn’t in trouble. “But tell him you have to go now, so we can talk with you.”

Ashlyn began to sit on the oval shaped coffee table in front of the loveseat but a sharp look and unbelieving eye roll from her wife helped her catch her mistake before it was too late. The keeper had been harping at all 5 kids about sitting on that coffee table for over a decade now and she countermanded all of that every time she broke her own rule and sat on it herself. It was an antique that Ken Krieger had found for them back in 2023. It was very sturdy and would certainly hold Ashlyn’s weight, but that was not the point. The front parlor was different. Very different. The whole house was kid-friendly and had been kid-loved and kid-abused for almost 15 years. The keeper had learned, the hard way, to let go of a lot of her OCD generated expectations about cleanliness and overall condition of most of the furniture in the house. Shit happened when you raised your kids. There was nothing she could do to keep it from happening either, not if she wanted to raise her kids right. But there were 2 places in the house that had super strict rules, and 2 other places that had regular strict rules. 

The regular strict rules pertained to the studio on the third floor and the office in the garage loft. Those areas were ok for kids to be in with supervision and permission. There were important things in both areas as well as dangerous things. The 2 super strict rules were for the master bed and the front parlor. Ashlyn was still freakish about her bed and always would be. She didn’t want anything dirty or sticky or hairy or wet or furry in or on her bed. Honestly, she didn’t want anything in there but she and Ali, but that wasn’t very practical. No dogs. No kids. No food. No dirty clothes piled on top of it. Nothing unclean at all. Of course both moms had invited the kids onto and into the bed a lot when they were younger, and even still did when the spirit moved them or a need arose. And dogs were allowed too, on very rare occasions. Sometimes, when Ashlyn was being particularly obsessive about it, Ali joked with her fussy wife about how lucky she herself felt to be allowed access to the bed.

The front parlor was, and always had been, the keeper’s conduit to her Grandma Lilian and her family’s past. It was also where many of the keepsakes and historic elements of the legacy of the big old house itself, and Captain Leighton, were kept. It was the museum room in the house and every kid knew not to fuck around in there. The few that had tried had been punished severely by both moms and every other adult babysitter in the Krieger circle. The rules had relaxed some over the years, which is why Josie was allowed to sit in there and read right at that very moment. There was no food or drink or dogs allowed in there, ever. But if you behaved and showed the room the respect it deserved, then you were granted entrance. If you disrespected the rules then you lost those privileges. Just ask Drew about that.

“You can text him back when we’re done” Ashlyn recovered smoothly as she moved to the small armchair that was angled next to the loveseat, on Josie’s other side, to her right. 

The redhead sighed - part annoyance at being interrupted and part relief at not getting in trouble for texting while she was supposed to be reading. Her Mama had even told her not to text before her work was done when she first went into the front parlor a half hour ago.

“There. Ok” Josie looked curiously from one loving face to the other after putting the phone face down on top of her book. 

She folded her arms across her chest and kicked her legs out. It was one of her telltale signs of being nervous and both moms recognized it even though Josie herself hadn’t made the connection yet. Ashlyn’s anxious tell was pacing and grabbing the back of her neck. Ali’s was tucking her hair behind her right ear and pulling at her fingers. All the kids had one too.

“Everything’s ok Jose, there’s nothing to worry about” Ali began, wanting to put the girl at ease right away. “We’ve been trying to find a good time to have this talk, and after getting your District results today, well, it seems like the perfect time.”

Josie looked again from one face to the other, her own visage cool and calm now. Once she knew she wasn’t in any trouble her curiosity took over completely. It was almost like a puzzle for her to try and solve. Her mind raced nimbly from one possibility to another, but she would never in a million years have guessed what was going to come out of her mother’s mouth next.

“We want you to go to a private high school, a special school that will challenge you more so you can keep learning at your own high level” Ashlyn explained simply, nodding encouragingly as she spoke.

Josie frowned, confused, and looked at both moms.

“But, why?”

“Well” Ali took a quick look at the keeper and then launched into the explanation that they had talked about for a couple of weeks already. “It’s not that complicated, but it’s a little hard to explain.” 

Ms. Hynd, Josie’s guidance counselor at the middle school who had been working with the girl for a year and a half now, had called Ali and Ashlyn in for a parent-teacher meeting as soon as school had resumed after New Year’s Day. The counselor, who had been everybody’s 1st grade teacher as Mrs. Hynd until she and her wife split up and she moved into the guidance counselor gig about 6 years ago, spent about 45 minutes describing Josie’s academic situation at the middle school. She had strongly encouraged the Kriegers to enroll Josie in some kind of advanced learning environment for high school, if not sooner. Ali and Ashlyn had been taken aback at first. They knew Josie was extremely smart and an excellent student, but they were surprised to hear Ms. Hynd’s forceful plea. The guidance counselor had handed them a short stack of informational pamphlets about some of the private schools in the area and told them to call or email her with any questions as they came up.

The two moms struggled with the decision just as they had struggled with the decision to have Dodge play up with older boys in soccer. Josie’s education seemed so much more important than soccer though. This was a potentially life-altering decision they were going to have to make. Ali talked with Sarah, the architect, whose 10-year old daughter Daphne was in a gifted program at her school. Ashlyn talked with Niki Cross who had a nephew attending a prestigious private high school down in Rhode Island. They did their research and talked and worried and talked some more. It had been a busy couple of weeks.

“That doesn’t make any sense” Josie tilted her head at her mom’s words.

“You’re an excellent student honey” Ali tried again, her brow furrowed a bit with the effort to find and say the right words now that the talk was finally happening. “You’re so smart that you don’t have to try very hard in school, do you?”

“Um, not really I guess” the redhead considered the question as her brain spun off in another direction to try and solve the riddle of the conversation. “I get all A’s...”

“Yes you do” Ali grinned at her bright daughter who was super smart but still might not understand their conversation. “And that’s mostly because of how smart you are...”

“And how hard you work” Ashlyn added for good measure. “I wish I had done my schoolwork like you do yours” she smiled again at Josie.

“But part of all those A’s is that you haven’t really been asked to do more...you haven’t been challenged yet at school...” the brunette forged on. “Nobody did anything wrong” she added quickly, seeing the girl’s eyes flash with fear or anger, it was hard to tell which.

“You’re too smart for this school Jojo, and for Gloucester high school” Ashlyn put it bluntly, sensing the girl just needed to hear the truth without any other words to cushion potential hurt feelings of others. Even if those others were her siblings. “That’s what’s going on here. That’s the truth.”

Josie blinked a few times as she let the words sink in. She tilted her head again, this time the other way, and looked a little bit like an AI robot who had just received new data to process. The only thing that gave her away as a real girl was her legs as they lifted and landed softly and independently of each other against the front of the love seat.

Ali and Ashlyn exchanged a nervous look as they waited for their daughter to say something, anything, in response to the bombshell they had just dropped on her. When two full minutes went silently by, Ali spoke again.

“You’re going to go to a different high school, one we’ll pick out for you that will be better for you. One where you’ll learn more and get even smarter than you already are. One where you’ll be with other kids who are smart like you.”

“High school?” she finally asked.

“Yes” Ashlyn confirmed. “We’re going to start looking for one this year, and in the meantime, you’re going to start going to a couple of advanced classes at your school next year, in 8th grade.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you and a couple of other kids from your grade are going to go to two different classes next year. They’re right in school, but just a different classroom. You guys will go to those two classes when everybody else is going to their regular classes” Ali explained as simply as she could, following Ashlyn’s lead.

“It’s not more school or longer days or anything” the keeper reached her long arm over and offered Josie her open palm, resting on the arm of the loveseat. She smiled when the redhead put one of her small hands into it and looked up at her. “It’s just a couple of classes that will challenge you more. That’s all.”

“Like Special Ed?” the girl practically whispered, horrified at the thought.

“Ummm...yes, but the exact opposite” Ali answered with a warm pat on the girl’s leg. She left her hand there and was happy that Josie didn’t remove it for her. “Instead of kids that need some special help to learn the basics, you guys will be getting special help to learn advanced things, for really smart kids.”

That appealed to Josie and both moms could see the spark light up in her eyes.

“So you’ll do that next year, and then go to a whole different school that does that for all the kids because you’ll all be really smart. All of your classes will be about advanced things and all of your classmates will be just as smart as you are” Ashlyn squeezed her hand. “Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it?” she encouraged with a wink and excitement in her voice.

“But...if everybody’s as smart as me, then how will I be better than them?”

This was the part that they knew was going to confuse or frustrate her, but they felt like they were ready to tackle it. Ali went first.

“You might not be, not without working at it” she began carefully. “Just like with your district auditions. You’re the very best piano player and flute player and alto singer in your school, right?”

“Yeah” Josie nodded at the statement of fact and studied her mother’s face as if it might help the words make more sense.

“And then when you got to District auditions, everybody was really good. Everybody was the best on their instrument at their own school, right?”

“MmmmHmmm” she nodded and both moms could see the wheels spinning inside her big brain.

“Your high school is gonna be like that for you, everybody’s going to be as good as you are, you’re all going to start out at the same level” Ashlyn took her turn, quickly adding a clarifying statement that made Josie exhale a sigh of relief, “a really high, smart level.”

“Ok.”

Ali and Ashlyn looked at each other again, not sure what to do with the blasé reply. It wasn’t happy or sad. It was decidedly non-committal.

“We’ve been telling you all your life to do your best, no matter what it is you’re doing” the brunette took it to another level, a deeper level that some grown-ups didn’t even understand all the time. “And you’ve been the best at everything you’ve done at school and we’re so proud of you baby girl” she squeezed Josie’s leg and beamed at her. “But being better than everybody else doesn’t mean the same thing as being the best you can be. Being the best in your school isn’t the same thing as being the best you can be. You shouldn’t just stop trying to be better because of the level of people around you.”

“Don’t just be the best” Ashlyn leaned forward from her chair, resting her elbows on her knees and bringing Josie’s hand down with her into the new position. Her hazel eyes shimmered with emotion and with conviction and with love for her bright girl. “You be the best you can possibly be. Don’t just be satisfied with being the best, with being better than the people around you, because you’re so much better than that.”

It took a long couple of moments and both moms had to bite their tongues to give their daughter the time she needed to process the inspiring new concept. But then she smiled. It was small at first but it grew into a bright grin with both parents returning it with equal fervor and wattage. They all beamed at each other for a minute until Ashlyn couldn’t take it anymore. She got on her knees and pulled Josie into a hug, reaching out with her right arm to pull Ali into it too. They both mumbled praise and soft I love yous for their redheaded wunderkind, complete with kisses to her head and cheeks as they all pulled apart again.

“We’re very proud of you honey” the keeper wiped a tear from the corner of her own eye and sniffled, still grinning from ear to ear.

“And we love you so much” Ali blinked away a tear of her own. “And we know this is the right thing to do for you and that’s why we’re doing it.”

“You’re gonna have questions as we do this, so just come and ask us honey, any time. Got it?” Ashlyn’s watery gaze turned serious. “No such thing as a dumb question, right?”

“Yeah. Got it. Ok” she nodded with the big smile still on her small round face. 

They all held those poses for another minute. Neither mom wanted to let the tender moment go but they knew they were pushing their luck.

“Can I text James back now?”

The two moms both chuckled and cocked their heads at each other when they heard their girl’s question. It took a lot to ruffle Josephine Krieger’s feathers and the moment of truth had apparently passed. They had wanted to counsel her not to be an obnoxious brat about her upcoming scholastic circumstances. They didn’t want her bragging or boasting to her siblings or her friends or schoolmates. They certainly didn’t want her boasts or brags to make anybody feel less than, in any way. Josie had a way of stating facts without meaning to sound like a jerk, but always sounding like a jerk anyway. It was unintentional, but she still left hurt feelings behind. But maybe that talk could wait until tomorrow. Maybe they could let her have tonight to enjoy the promise of her bright future without more rules tacked onto it. Yeah, they could do that.

“Yes” Ali answered the question with one last kiss to her girl’s cheek. “But don’t tell anybody else about this yet ok? We need to talk about the right way to do that so nobody’s feelings get hurt.”

“Ok” Josie replied. “Just James.”

“Just James” Ashlyn smiled again as both she and Ali got up to leave and get back to the rest of the evening kid duties. “And get your reading done. It’s getting late” the keeper admonished from the entrance near the front hallway and front door of the big old house. Her thoughts had turned to poor, sick Lily in the next room. “We all need to wash our hands every time we get up, and eat well, and get lots of sleep so we don’t keep getting this stomach thing.”

“Ok” the girl nodded but wasn’t really listening anymore, her face glued to her phone already.

Ali met her wife at the gate with a soft smile and patted her butt to spur her on – up and over the gate.

“Let’s go babe, this is probably the most germ-free room in the whole house.”

When Ashlyn hesitated, Ali turned to follow her loving gaze. They both gave their brilliant, talented, adorable, willful, wonderful little girl one last look. With her diminutive size, Josie still looked so young in so many ways, but at the same time it was impossible to miss how mature she was becoming. Their little girl was definitely growing up and they were both just going to have to do their best to hang on for the ride.

//

Josie flipped idly through the latest social media app that ‘all the kids were using’ as she lay in bed later that night. Her bedroom was dark except for the nightlight still in place and the volume on her phone was just loud enough for her to hear it. She watched high school and college aged young people do wildly unrelated things as entertainment and tutorials. After a couple of brief videos on how to do your make-up, a clip of a dog and a cat seeming to slow dance to a romantic song, a video of stuffed animals having a pretend conversation about a big celebrity wedding that had just taken place over the long weekend, and one more where they simply laughed uncontrollably for a full two minutes, there was a soft knock on her open bedroom door.

Ashlyn felt a quick moment of déjà vu as she stood in another doorway looking at her growing up too fast daughter and her phone. There was something completely incongruous and almost anachronistic about seeing 12-1/2 year old Josie watching make-up tutorials while sitting up in her canopied princess bed. It was the age old ‘tween’ conundrum. Josie wasn’t quite a teenager yet, but she wasn’t a little kid anymore either. It was an awkward, confusing transitional period between the two age groups that every child went through to some degree. It was just as real with boys as it was with girls, but there had never been such a striking contrast with Drew as there had been with Meg and now with Josie. Ashlyn didn’t pretend to understand it. All she knew, with absolute certainty, was that Josie could look and sound and act like a 16-year old one minute, and then switch effortlessly and instantly back to the 10-year old she was just a couple of years ago. It was dizzying and sometimes disturbing, especially the change back from 10 to 16. That one hurt the keeper’s heart, no matter how hard she tried to pretend otherwise.

“Time to go to sleep, sweetheart” Ashlyn smiled as she crossed the room with Dodge’s phone and tablet already in her hands. 

She sat on the edge of Josie’s bed and listened to her whine as the girl swiped two or three more times, eyes still glued to the device in her hands. 

“Aw, Mama” the soft, playful whimper told the keeper that there would be no struggle that night. 

Sometimes one of the kids would make a fuss about shutting down their electronics for the night, but they were getting better about it. The time was right there on the damned phone or tablet for them to see. There was no reason for them to be surprised when Ali or Ashlyn came to collect them at 9pm every night. But that night Josie was tired and her moms could see it. It had been a big day for their girl and she had exerted a lot of extra energy worrying about her District results, processing those results and then sharing them with her friends and grandparents. On top of that, her moms had delivered big news of their own about her future education. And, not to be overlooked by any of them, she was still getting over her own sickness from Sunday and Monday. In addition to getting sick more often than her siblings, the redhead also took longer to get fully healthy afterwards and was always ripe for a relapse. Josie often got the same damned illness twice, when whatever plague swept through the family as it seemed to be doing that week. Both Ashlyn and Ali did their best to combat those situations – hence the sick kid quarantine rules and relentless nagging about hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes at all costs.

“Time’s up my sweet” the keeper patted her daughter’s hip through the dark purple comforter, easily leaning across her small body and smiling warmly at her. “You can watch your vids tomorrow.”

The girl’s phone dinged as she was closing the social app and she looked pleadingly up at her Mama’s still smiling face. They both knew a text had just landed, which was rare but not unheard of at that hour. Many of the kids in the Kriegers’ social circle had similar rules about devices at night and 9pm was a popular cut-off time for everybody. Someone was just sending one last message before giving up their phone, just like Josie was about to do.

“Tell him goodnight and that’s it” Ashlyn acquiesced.

“It’s not James” the redhead clarified as her tiny fingers flew into action. “It’s Kayla.”

Ashlyn had to admit to liking the fact that it was Josie’s bestie Kayla and not her boyfriend Cole. She found it interesting that when she said ‘him’, Josie had assumed she meant James and not Cole. James was becoming an interesting combination of bestie and maybe more, and the keeper wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She and Ali had both noticed the fervor with which their daughter sought out James Dwyer both via phone and text and in person. He did the same in equal measure in return. Josie and James had always been very close and both the Kriegers and the Dwyers loved their devoted friendship. There had been nothing to indicate that it was anything but friendship now, but their parents weren’t totally obtuse. All four of them could see the relationship deepening and strengthening over time. It hadn’t been talked about among the parents yet, not seriously anyway. Maybe it would always remain just an incredibly close friendship, like Ali & Sydney’s own relationship. Nobody knew for sure so there was no sense worrying about it yet. And was there even a reason for worry if they did form a romantic relationship later on as well? For the time being, it wasn’t on anybody’s radar. The two tweens were still the very best of friends and that was all that mattered to anybody.

“Ok, give it” Ashlyn put her hand out, palm up, and folded her fingers back and forth a couple of times expectantly.

“There” Josie exhaled after another few seconds of texting and then dropped the phone into her mother’s big hand. She fell back against her pillows dramatically, but there was a sweet smile on her face.

“What did Kayla need you for this late?”

“She just wanted to tell me good job” the redhead yawned and smiled up at her Mama as she snuggled down under the covers. “When we talked before it was just science project stuff” she shrugged and rolled onto her left side, facing Ashlyn and tugging her beloved Teddy bear into her chest. 

“Aw, that’s so nice” the keeper grinned. “Totally worth the extra minute” she winked as she added the phone to Dodge’s devices at the foot of the bed and turned back to her daughter.

“Yeah, she’s nice” Josie agreed and yawned again as she put her glasses on her nightstand.

“Well you did do a good job” Ashlyn brushed the hair off of her girl’s face and gently caressed her head for a few seconds as she spoke. “Mom and I are very proud of you. You worked hard on those auditions and it showed. Great job baby girl” she leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Thanks” the girl shone under the affection and praise but then yawned again, bigger than before. 

“Ok, get some sleep now. You need your rest...”

“I know Mama” she let out a tired chuckle. “I don’t wanna get sick again.”

“Such a smart girl, I love you honey” Ashlyn sat back and admired the almost sleeping beauty. The events of the day caught up to her and her emotions rose up with them. “You’re incredible my sweet Miss Josephine” she spoke softly, fighting to stay composed. “But don’t you ever forget that even if you weren’t, I’d love you just the same.”

Josie’s heavy eyelids fluttered open briefly and she blinked up at her mother. She nodded her red head slightly, nuzzling into the pillow with a soft little hum and closing her eyes again for good. Ashlyn grinned when she heard the sound. She knew that hum. That was the same exhausted but happy hum that Ali made so often when she was settling into sleep. She left one last squeeze on Josie’s leg as she got up with the devices to leave the room. She paused one last time in one last doorway for the night and felt her heart surge with love for her feisty little girl, her miracle baby, her mini Ali with the wrong color hair. She chuckled softly to herself at that concept - that anything about Josie could be wrong in any way. She was a unique child who had struggled with one thing or another her entire life but had managed to still rise above everything and thrive. Some part of Ashlyn knew that this child was going to cause her heart to ache more than the rest, just as had always been the case, although usually not from Josie’s own doing. Circumstance had been the root of it in the past but this strong, bold, unflinching firebrand of a girl was going to wreak her own havoc in the softest parts of her Mama’s chest and Ashlyn knew it. As she closed the door, she whispered one last thing into the room, and maybe into her daughter’s dreams... 

“Fly high little one, fly as high as you can.”


	3. Ashlyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny bit of smut about halfway through but just a brief moment - and it's not Ashlyn & Ali.

Wednesday morning started early, and ugly.

“Ash. Ash!” Ali’s cranky voice filled the master bedroom and roused Ashlyn from a deep sleep.

“Whuh...Huh?” the keeper sat up with her eyes still closed. She turned her head towards her wife’s urgent call and willed her eyelids to open. “What’s the matter?” she yawned out when she saw Ali moving quickly past the foot of the bed towards the master bathroom.

“Drew’s sick. I need you to bring up paper towels. I just used the last of the roll I had up here. Get up.”

Ashlyn watched her wife move even more quickly back past the foot of the bed again, empty handed, towards the second-floor hallway. Apparently there were no paper towels in their bathroom. The keeper rubbed her eyes and reached behind her for her glasses from the nightstand, catching the time on the clock as she did so. It was 4:45am. Jesus fucking Christ.

“Now Ashlyn” Ali spoke as loudly as possible without waking up Dodge and Lily in the two nearest bedrooms. “I need your help.”

The keeper hopped out of bed now that she could see what she was doing and scrambled down the backstairs on her quest for paper towels. Once Dodge had come down with the same stomach bug as Josie, Ali had brought up the bathroom cleaning supplies and just left them in whichever bathroom was being puked in the most. They had moved from the girls’ bathroom for Josie to the boys’ bathroom for Dodge, back to the girls’ bathroom for Lily, and now, for Drew, back across the hall again. The brunette had gone through several rolls of paper towels in the three previous days as she fought germs and vomit in a losing battle. Somehow, she had forgotten to bring up a new roll last night before going to bed and was kicking herself for it now.

Ashlyn ran up the front stairs with 2 rolls of paper towels she had had to go all the way to the basement emergency back-up storage shelves for. She was panting and out of breath but she had completed her task in record time. 

“Here...here...” she thrust one roll out to her wife who was standing next to the toilet in the boys’ bathroom, bent over and rubbing Drew’s back as he knelt and prepared to kiss the porcelain God once again.

The keeper’s heart dropped when she saw how tired Ali looked. It had been 4 nights in a row of sick kids, and although Dodge had kept his vomiting to daylight hours, everybody else had required the brunette to come to their aid in the wee hours of the morning. It had obviously started to add up. Ali looked haggard as she leaned down, face full of concern for their son. Ashlyn didn’t think she had ever seen her wife look so...old and tired before. The keeper wasn’t being critical, she was simply surprised to see what she was seeing. Part of it, she figured out instantly, was the angle in which Ali’s tired body was bent over, with everything on her face falling forward and down. Ali Krieger was still the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and the brunette’s 49-1/2 years didn’t change that one bit. Ashlyn hated how helpless she was at times like these. She would have given anything to be able to tell her tired wife to go back to bed and take over on the kid puke front.

“Thanks” Ali smiled briefly as she took the paper towels from the keeper.

“How is he?”

“He’s been throwing up for, I don’t know” she sighed and looked around aimlessly for a clock that simply wasn’t there. “What time is it?”

“Almost 5:00am” Ashlyn answered and moved to stand on the other side of Ali. She put both rolls of paper towels down on the floor and started to rub the brunette’s back for her.

“So...” Ali squinted as she tried to get her tired brain to work it out, “since about 3:15am...”

“An hour and 45 minutes” Ashlyn supplied the answer as her wife hummed at the warm, comforting contact on her back. “Poor guy.”

It was funny how the boundary-pushing teenagers still wanted their mommy whenever they were sick. Ashlyn almost chuckled at the thought of teenagers trying to spin that fact into some kind of rebellious statement. Before she had a chance to say another word, Drew started to puke again.

“Get outta here” Ali pushed her wife towards the nearest door, the one into Dodge’s room, and bent over Drew as he filled the toilet again.

Ashlyn slipped out the door, feeling guilty as hell. She knew Ali wasn’t being a jerk by kicking her out of the bathroom. The brunette was being practical as fuck - she didn’t want to have to clean up after her wife’s sympathy vomit. The keeper was relieved to see that Dodge was still asleep but she didn’t linger. She hustled right out of the room before the sounds of Drew’s sickness started to make her queasy. Her guilty conscience wouldn’t let her go back to bed, no matter how much she wanted to. Instead, she set about cleaning and disinfecting the house again, starting with all the areas Drew frequented the most. She started in the basement and worked her way up through the first floor. Before going full bore on the cleaning though, she made two thermos bottles of coffee and brought one up to a very appreciative Ali.

Ashlyn set an alarm for herself so she could go upstairs and make sure Josie was up at 6am and in the shower. Ali would be busy with Drew so the keeper would take over any of her usual morning routine jobs to keep things on track for the rest of the kids. Her own morning duties of getting Drew up and making sure he ate something before leaving the house at 6:40am to catch the bus were clearly not going to be needed that day. When she poked her head into the teen’s room on her way back downstairs, he was back in his bed looking pale and sweaty. She could hear Ali in the bathroom, cleaning again.

“Alright Jojo, have a great day” Ashlyn hugged the redhead goodbye at the mudroom door at 7am on the dot. The girl was the most punctual child she had ever known. “Be great! Have fun! Learn lots!” she called after the redhead as she disappeared down the driveway on her way to the bus stop.

Ashlyn hustled up the front stairs to make sure Dodge was up and in the shower, and to begin the most annoying part of the morning routine – coaxing Lily awake and into action and then dragging her through the steps to get her off to school too. She was so focused on her task that she ran right into Ali in the hallway between the twins’ bedrooms. The brunette had just come out of the master bedroom freshly showered but still in her robe.

“I’m sorry baby” she offered quickly as she caught Ali and spun them both around in their minor collision. 

They were both zombie-level tired and just trying to get through the morning alive. There was a fog dulling both sets of eyes that even their prescription glasses couldn’t help them see through.

“Oh God, are you ok?” Ali asked in return, knowing she had smashed her elbow right into her wife’s ribs when they smacked into each other. “I’m sorry honey...”

“I’m fine. I think” Ashlyn chuckled as they held each other loosely and took a moment to self-assess. “Yeah, I’m good. How are you doing?”

“I’m just tired” Ali yawned. “Even after all that coffee I’m tired” she chuckled and leaned into a hug from those strong, tattooed arms she loved so much.

“You’re nice and clean though” the keeper pulled back and kissed her wife’s still-damp head. “Mmmm you smell good too.”

“That’s a recent development” Ali mustered a weak laugh. “Trust me, you don’t want the details.”

“I definitely do not” Ashlyn made an eek face when they pulled apart to look at each other. “Thanks for doing all the hard work again” she gave her a sweet but quick kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you too” the brunette mumbled against her lips, not wanting to move because she was comfy and cozy right there.

They heard a ruckus from the boys’ bathroom and both jerked back to full parental attention.

“What is all this stuff here for?!” they heard Dodge’s surprised voice from the bathroom. “I almost killed myself!” he spoke loudly, still feeling the adrenaline rush from tripping over all the cleaning supplies just inside his bathroom door. For all his youthful energy, Dodge could sometimes sound like a cranky old man. “Someone coulda been killed!”

It was Ali’s turn to make an eek face. “Ooops.”

“He’s alright” Ashlyn reassured her with a knowing nod. Her statement registering as true when they both heard the shower start a few seconds later. “I’ve gotta get Lily up.”

“And I’ve gotta get dressed for work...”

“Aw, do you have to go in? Can’t you work from home and take a nap first?” the keeper gave her wife a concerned, sympathetic look.

“I don’t know” Ali sighed. “I’ll have to think about it I guess. I mean, I could, I think” her face scrunched up as she tried to remember what she had on her schedule for the day.

“Think hard about it, babe. Please” Ashlyn kissed her lips again before moving towards Lily’s door. “As soon as she’s up I’m making breakfast for you guys. And I’ll take them to school...”

“Aw...” Ali felt like she might cry she was so happy and moved to hear those supportive words. “Really?”

“Absolutely” the keeper confirmed with a wink. “If you can stick with Drew until I get back from that, then you can go back to sleep for a while. Ok?”

“How can I refuse?” the brunette smiled softly at her thoughtful wife and then watched as she disappeared into Lily’s room.

They stuck to their plan and Ashlyn took the lead on getting the twins dressed, fed, and then to school on time. When she got back to the big old house at 8:40am, Meg was awake and making herself breakfast in the kitchen with a bounce in her step.

“You’d better be careful in this house kiddo” Ashlyn warned as she kissed the tall redhead’s cheek where she stood in front of the stove. “The plague is upon us.” They both chuckled.

“I’m spending the day with Charlie anyway.”

“Big plans? Something fun in the city?”

“No. Helping his parents clean out their attic, I think” she frowned as she thought about the drive they’d have to make to the South Shore and then, eventually, back.

“Oh, is that an option? Who knew?” Ashlyn teased. “What do I have to do to get you two to help us clean out...anything here?”

Meg gave her a playful eyeroll and hip-checked her in reply. 

It still sometimes struck Ashlyn as bizarre that Meg was all grown up and 5’10” tall and beautiful and about to enter into her final semester of college. The redhead was the picture of youthful perfection. Her body was fit and muscular but she had that length and litheness that many goalkeepers wished for. Her height was a DNA gift but the fitness and muscles had all come from hard work and dedication to living a healthy lifestyle. Ashlyn was 5’9” and still in good shape for 48 years old. Both she and Ali had taken care of themselves as best they could while being full-time working moms to four busy kids. They tried to eat well and exercise as much as possible to counteract the times they didn’t eat so well. Ashlyn still worked out in the basement gym 3-4 times a week, depending on her schedule. Ali had less time because of her commute so she only managed a couple of times a week. When their soccer league started up again next month they’d be running around every Monday night and having a blast doing it. They also tried to take the dogs for a walk together once a day but that was often difficult to achieve. But they tried. Both women’s bodies had changed over the years and as menopause approached there were even more changes to deal with. But they both looked beautiful even with a few extra pounds in certain places and some laugh lines around their eyes. They might not look as good as Halle Berry did at 60 but they were definitely still at that end of the spectrum. They were not dumpy old ladies, at all.

“What’s that?” Ashlyn asked as she peered into the pot on the stove. “Smells good.”

“Just some new organic oatmeal Gwen found” Meg shrugged as she slowly stirred the thick contents of the pot. “Does smell good though, doesn’t it?”

“Better than oatmeal should” the blonde made herself another cup of coffee, took off her glasses and rubbed her bleary eyes. “Be careful what’s in it” she cautioned through a yawn. “Whit almost got into trouble once because of some weird ingredient in something harmless like that.”

“I’m sure it’s fine” Meg scoffed but then thought more about it as she continued to stir her breakfast and sip her own coffee.

“Ok, if you trust Gwen like that, then I’m sure it’s ok” Ashlyn added sarcastically, knowing Gwen would be the last person to check all the ingredients in her favorite new organic oatmeal discovery.

It only took until Ashlyn’s coffee was done brewing for Meg to come to her senses.

“Yeah, I’m gonna check it out with the team first” she turned the stove off and changed course.

Ashlyn smirked to herself as she watched Meg make herself a bowl of cereal instead.

“Well, there’s no need for it to go to waste...” the blonde said as she returned the pot to the stove top, turned the burner back on, and took over the stirring.

Meg turned to her with a dropped jaw. 

“It needs 5 more minutes” the redhead shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Did you make that all up just to steal my oatmeal?” she asked as she sat at the small 2-person kitchen table in front of the double-sided fireplace that had always been her favorite place to sit and eat. “You’re unbelievable” she chuckled.

“I certainly did not” the blonde defended herself and took a sip of coffee. “You can check with Whit...”

“Oh you know I’m going to” Meg laughed and shook her head again. “I can’t believe I just let you play me like that. When will I ever learn?”

//

The two moms got Drew set up in the freshly disinfected front living room, with both dogs for company. He zoned out to the tv and slept for most of the rest of the morning. Ali went up to nap and Ashlyn did her best to get some work done – mostly emails and other correspondence that she could abandon in a millisecond if Drew started getting sick again.

“Hey baby” the keeper purred into Ali’s ear as she knelt on their big bed at 11:00am.

Ashlyn would have given her right arm to be able to crawl into bed with her wife instead of having to wake her up. She hoped a 2-hour nap would be enough to keep the brunette going strong for the rest of the day. Ali was curled up on her right side, facing the middle of the bed and sound asleep.

“Mmmm...” Ali hummed softly and turned her face up to where her keeper hovered above her. She puckered her lips, eyes still closed, and hummed again when she felt Ashlyn’s warm kiss on her lips. “What time is it?” she asked as she rolled onto her back and stretched her body out as far as it would reach.

“11:00am” Ashlyn replied with another kiss, this one on her wife’s chin, then one on her neck, and then her chest. 

“You shouldn’t have let me sleep so late” the brunette frowned as she woke up and her brain kicked in. “Now you won’t have time for a nap, will you?”

“Nah, but I’m good. You needed it more” Ashlyn pulled the covers down to her wife’s waist and continued placing kisses on top of her t-shirt, down her torso.

“Babe...” Ali’s voice was sweet and tender as she reached out and ran her right hand up and down Ashlyn’s back and side. “You got up early too. You’re so sweet to me, but you’re crazy” she giggled.

“You got up way early sugarplum” the keeper began kissing her way back up. “And you’ve been up every night with one of the kids. It’s not even close. Trust me. You needed this nap. I’m only sorry I have to wake you up now.”

“How is he?”

“He’s asleep right now. He threw-up once, about an hour ago but there wasn’t much to it” she grimaced at the memory.

The life hack Ali had come up with years ago for times when Ashlyn was the only mom around and would have no choice but to deal with a pukey toddler or child of any age was to use a plastic garbage bag inside the small trash can that sat at the ready. That way the squeamish keeper could just lift it out, tie it up and throw it into the regular trash without having to see or touch any actual vomit. She still had to hear it and smell it, but the keeper had found ways to survive the ordeal and be there for her kids. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it had worked well for them when necessary. 

Ali giggled when she saw her wife shake her head to try and get the thoughts of vomit out of it.

“Aw, you did it honey” Ali puckered up again and received another kiss. “I’m so proud of you. Seriously.”

The two moms had agreed to switch roles that afternoon. Ali would pick up the twins from school and Ashlyn would go to Winchester and pick up Becca Flanagan from school. It wasn’t every week that Whitney and Ryan needed help from their friends anymore. As Tommy got more used to his enzyme replacement therapy sessions, it wasn’t such a huge deal that required full attendance by both parents every week. Sometimes both Whitney and Ryan went, and sometimes they went solo. It all depended on how Tommy was feeling and if he was getting any tweaks to his infusion cocktail. If anything was different or new, both parents went and spent the time with him. That was another thing – it wasn’t always such a lengthy visit anymore. As Tommy’s system got used to the procedure, and as his doctor’s got used to Tommy, the post-ERT observation time was decreased. Additionally, Becca was almost 9 now and in 3rd grade and she had her own friends. There were two friends who had parents that Whitney trusted enough to ask them for help on an occasional Wednesday afternoon. But Ali and Ashlyn always prepared their Wednesday afternoons and evenings with Becca in mind, just in case. 

This week Tommy’s infusion cocktail was getting altered a bit so both Whitney and Ryan went with him for the duration. Ali was going to leave work early and pick up Becca after school and then hang out with her at the Flanagan’s house until dinner time when everybody else was expected back home. They knew that Whitney was trying to spread out her asks among Becca’s friends and the Kriegers and Dwyers and Crosses. But they also knew that they were still her first choice. It meant a lot to both Ali and Ashlyn but not in a competitive way. They were honored to help with such an important part of their friends’ lives.

“So I’ll get Becca and you get the twins, yes?” Ashlyn clarified one last time before helping her beautiful brunette out of bed.

“Yes. Drew will survive by himself for a half hour” she yawned again. “He’ll probably appreciate the space.”

“No kidding” Ashlyn laughed and then went into the master bathroom to put her contacts in and some make-up on. 

“And you’re going to Hannah’s condo – why again?” Ali asked as she peed and then brushed her teeth.

There was no passive aggressive bullshit behind it, the brunette just couldn’t remember what her wife had told her the other day.

“She had a gift for Meg delivered and she’s afraid she’s going to find it if she goes to the condo before Hannah gets there for next weekend.”

“Ah, right. Now I remember. Ok, well have fun with my little bug” Ali used her favorite nickname for Becca. “Whit said they thought they’d be home around dinner time, but to feed her anyway, just in case.”

“Oh! I almost forgot” Ashlyn rummaged around in one of the bathroom vanity drawers until she found what she was looking for. “Aha!” she held up the white, paper face mask that all true germophobes owned at least one of. 

“Good thinking babe. Just in case” Ali praised her, knowing that her thoughtful wife was going to wear the mask just to keep any stray germs from the big old house away from young, immune-deficient Tommy Flanagan’s house. “You got any more of those in there?” the brunette asked, only half-joking.

//

It was 12:30pm as Ashlyn parked along beautiful Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s toney Back Bay neighborhood. If she timed things right, she would be in and out of Hannah’s condo, and on her way back out to Whitney’s house in 15 minutes. That would give her about 90 minutes to make the 25-minute drive to Winchester and to stop and get a late lunch from her favorite Chinese restaurant along the way. In all her years living in the Boston area, The Mandarin Restaurant near Ali’s old house was still the very best the keeper had found. Winchester was one town over from Stoneham so it was an easy lunch decision to make for the blonde. She had promised to bring some home for her wife’s dinner that night too.

Ashlyn climbed the 10 steps up to the elegant front door of the historic brownstone building that housed Hannah’s 3-bedroom luxury condo and used the key Hannah had given her to unlock it. She’d had the key since her ex-girlfriend entrusted her with it right after finalizing the real estate purchase last year, but she’d never had to use it before. The keeper had attended several informal BC women’s soccer gatherings at the condo and she and her whole family had visited a couple of times before and after Meg’s games. But she did her best to distance herself from everything else having to do with the residence. It was Hannah’s home. And Meg’s. But it wasn’t hers, or Ali’s. Ashlyn tried hard to maintain a clear line of distinction there. 

She had let a similar line get blurry once before and fucked up Ali’s birthday surprise for her a couple of years ago because of it. She had learned a painful lesson and she wasn’t going to fuck up like that again. As it was, she felt uncomfortable even being there without either Hannah or Meg present. Ali never made a fuss about the situation, but the keeper was making a concerted effort to make it so that she never ever had to make a fuss. The brunette didn’t care if her wife went to Hannah’s condo or not, not for an errand like today’s trip. If Ali found out Ashlyn and Hannah had spent a bunch of time there together then that would be different. The brunette would be jealous as hell. Ashlyn knew she was making it more of a big deal inside her own head, but it was something that was important to her – keeping that line in place. Better safe than sorry. Nothing was more important than her relationship with Ali. Nothing. 

The heft of the beautiful, ornate, wood door with the shiny brass knocker and the old-fashioned speakeasy opening at eye-level made Ashlyn think of a museum, or one of the mansions from Newport, RI. Hannah’s condo wasn’t nearly that opulent, but the bones of the building itself – the doors and the intricately carved casings inside the modestly sized foyer and the lofty high ceilings and the big old windows that were nearly 6’ tall – it felt old and antique in the best way. It felt like art. Ashlyn had never been much into architecture, until she met Ali who had shared her passion for gorgeous old buildings with her. But the keeper understood the allure of these majestic old buildings – it was a huge part of why she kept her grandmother’s big old house in the first place. And she especially appreciated them when they were lovingly modernized and clean and updated. 

Hannah had never been into architecture or fancy houses either, except as a sign of affluence in her younger days. She bought the condo to be close to Meg during her college soccer career primarily, but also as a good investment financially. It had been one of the best decisions the wealthy redhead had ever made, and her only regret was waiting so long to do it. The 3-bedroom condo took up the first two floors of the brownstone and another condo took up the top two floors with its own beautiful entrance door right next to Hannah’s at the top of those 10 steps up from the street. The quietest elevator Ashlyn had ever heard was just inside the neighbors’ front door and whisked them up to the third floor of the building without impacting Hannah’s unit in any way. An example of some of the modernization that the keeper was so fond of.

The drawback to Hannah’s condo was that there was another one on top of it. If her upstairs neighbors were loud enough on their first floor then Hannah could hear them from her own second floor. The upside to Hannah’s condo and the reason she chose the lower unit, was the small but beautiful deck off the back of the kitchen. She could sit there and enjoy her half of the thoughtfully landscaped, but small, greenspace that was their backyard. Her upstairs neighbors had the other half of the space, the left side of the backyard if you were looking at it from the front of the building, but no deck.

Like so many buildings built back in those days, and not at all unlike the big old house itself, everything was linear in those brownstones. The front doors were in the middle of the front façade with matching and mirroring walk-out bay windows on either side. The front entry hall was straight and narrow and led all the way to the back of the building with only the smallish full-sized bathroom built in the middle of it. Ashlyn had always been struck by how much the layout reminded her of her own home. There were stairs leading up to the second floor along the right side of the front hall and a shallow closet just inside the front door itself.

There were two sets of elegant French doors 8’ down the hallway from the front door, one on either side. The glass French doors on the left led to the living room which took up 2/3 of the building from front to back. The formal dining room was through the matching doors to the right and also took up 2/3 of the building from front to back. It held a medium-sized dining room table with 6 chairs around it and some other pieces of furniture. Behind the dining room and through another set of French doors was the nicely equipped kitchen. The right wall and almost all of the rear wall of the room were counter spaces with the usual appliances. The kitchen sink was on the rear wall and sat directly below a big window looking out onto the deck and small yard. The stove and refrigerator were on the right wall. There was a small table with three chairs in the left corner near the dining room wall, and the door to the deck right across from it.

On the left side of the condo behind the living towards the back of the building was Hannah’s well-appointed office. There was a desk near the back wall that faced the front of the room and the set of French doors connecting it to the living room. There were two built-in bookcases in dark wood along the hallway wall that really set the tone for the room, and a comfortable leather armchair in the corner near the living room wall. There was a window on the back wall behind Hannah’s desk and one on the side wall between the desk and the armchair. It was the quietest room on the first floor simply because it was away from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. When you closed the French doors it was hard to hear the tv from the living room too.

At the back of the front hall, between the office and the kitchen and behind the bathroom there, was another small space that connected the two rooms. There was a window on the back wall with a lovely reading nook built beneath it, complete with comfy cushions and a two-person bench-style seat with storage underneath. It was also the laundry room with a washer and drier across from the window seat. It was a more popular room than one might think.

Upstairs, there was the same main hallway that went from front to back with a larger full bathroom at the end of it. On the right side of the condo from front to back was the master suite. The master bedroom took up 2/3 of the space with the master bathroom behind it. The left side was divided almost equally into two smaller bedrooms. The nicest feature of the second floor was the balcony that overlooked the front of the building between the two walk-out bay windows. Hannah had placed two comfortable chairs and a small table just inside the elegant French balcony doors and it was her favorite place to sit when she wanted to take in the city and the lovely greenspace that made up Commonwealth Ave. 

The overall décor of the condo was pretty typical Hannah – not too fancy but nice with the hint of money just below the surface. She liked some very nice things but she also loved some really basic things and had no qualms about mixing and matching as she saw fit. Her business partner and friend, Reenie, was always nagging her to keep things one way or the other per room but had so far been unsuccessful in achieving any real change in that regard. In truth, there was a lot of Reenie’s influence all over the beautiful home. She wasn’t a snob and she never put on airs, but Reenie Vega had a certain classiness about her. She had a fun blend of southern charm, well-heeled taste, with a dash of city-girl brashness mixed in. Ashlyn had always liked Reenie, what little she had seen of her while she had been living with Hannah. The keeper was happy that Hannah had found a trusted friend to partner with for her event planning business down in DC. Reenie ran the business day to day and Hannah funded it, but they both worked hard to make it as successful as it had become.

Ashlyn’s stomach growled loudly as she stepped into the quiet condo. Her mouth watered at the thought of her favorite salt and pepper chicken dish from the Mandarin. Just a few more minutes and she would be on her way. She spun the key with its simple Boston College Eagles soccer ball keychain around her index finger as she moved to her right towards the dining room table. The concierge service provided by the property management team operating the building and several others like it up and down the block always left packages delivered to Hannah’s condo right on the dining room table for her. Ashlyn had seen small boxes and pouches there before without realizing that was why. It made sense. There wasn’t a table in the narrow front hallway and the dining room table was the closest suitable surface.

“What the hell?” she muttered under her breath when she found the table empty.

She frowned as she pulled her boots off her feet and left them in the hallway. Hannah had already confirmed that the package had been delivered – that’s why she had asked Ashlyn to go and pick it up right away. Where the hell was it? Ashlyn spun the key around her finger, three spins forward, three spins back, as she padded her way through the dining room and towards the kitchen. The French doors that separated the two rooms were open, as they usually were, and she noted how pretty the midday sunlight looked as it streamed in the back window in the kitchen. She was hoping some new concierge mistakenly used the kitchen table instead of the dining room table as the delivery spot. As she stepped through the open doorway to the kitchen she looked to her left and smiled at the package right where she hoped it might be. 

“Gotcha” she grinned, pleased that she would still have time for her anticipated lunch stop after all.

As she stood there looking down at three packages, making sure to grab the correct one, she heard something – a sound she couldn’t quite place, a sound that didn’t belong in the empty condo. She listened again, spinning keychain stopped in her palm. It sounded like a groan and the blonde wondered if she could be hearing the upstairs neighbors all the way down here on the first floor. Those brownstones were built with thick walls back in the day and they had all been insulated during restoration and renovation work since then. Still...it definitely sounded like a muffled human noise. While she took another minute to contemplate reporting it to the concierge team just in case the upstairs neighbor was in some kind of distress, another sound made its way to her ears.

This sound was closer and louder and definitely sounded like a groan. It sounded like it was coming from Hannah’s office. Ashlyn walked to the end of the kitchen table and peered into the laundry room, eyes resting for a moment on the sun-strewn reading nook there. For the first frightening second it occurred to her that she might not be alone in the condo. What if she was interrupting a break in? What if some crook was stealing from Hannah right at that very moment? There were some expensive electronics in the office so it made logical sense to the keeper. She sucked in a breath and tried to stay calm. She wished like hell she hadn’t left her phone in the Jeep. Why had she done that?? She was just going to run in and run right back out, that’s why. Stupid stomach making her do dumb things and make bad decisions.

The laundry room was about 6’ across, the same width as the main hallway that ran front to back on both floors of the condo. There was a doorless opening into the kitchen which is where Ashlyn was peering from, and a door into the office which was halfway open, directly across from her. Ashlyn’s eye caught sight of a broom in the corner and she reached out and grabbed it without even thinking twice. She found herself tiptoeing across the small room, clutching the broom in both hands and wielding it in front of her, apparently ready to confront the intruder even though she hadn’t officially decided to do any such thing. 

When she got to the door and her shaking hand was about to push it farther open, she heard something that didn’t make any sense to her in that tense moment. 

“Mmmmm...ohh...yesssss...”

Ashlyn was so confused that she literally shook her head to try and clear it before sucking in another breath and slowly pushing the door open a few more inches. As her eyes focused on Hannah’s big desk, which she had a perfect side view of only 3’ in front of her, another moan and a breathy gasp and hum filled the room.

There, on top of her mother’s desk, was Meg – sweet Meg, with Charlie on his knees in front of her, head buried between her legs. They were both naked and the redhead was leaning back with her hands behind her gripping the edge of the desk. Her knees were bent up and her heels had just caught the other edge of the desk, barely hanging on and slipping down every couple of minutes as Charlie’s ministrations took effect. Meg’s long, lanky torso undulated as she reacted to the mouth on her vulva and the large hand on one of her equally large breasts. Her head was thrown back, long, curly, bright coppery red hair loose behind her, and her eyes were closed as she moaned and hummed her encouragement and enjoyment.

Ashlyn cocked her head as if it would help her make sense of what she was seeing. She felt totally disconnected from reality, like she was floating in some kind of weird, incongruous dream. For some reason, she fixated on Meg’s big breasts. Seeing them, like that, made Ashlyn flash back instinctively to Hannah’s pale, milky skin and her even larger breasts. The keeper’s brain glitched as two worlds that were never supposed to overlap began to do just that in what was supposed to be a quick trip in and out of an empty condo. Ashlyn’s stomach growled again and she took advantage of the faint interruption to gather herself. She squeezed her eyes shut and made a sour face, silently praying that this really was a dream and not reality. When she opened her eyes to the same shocking visual, everything came into extra sharp focus for her and her prime directive instantly became somehow getting the hell out of there without being discovered. She had only been standing there for 15 seconds but it felt like an eternity. An eternity that she might never recover from. What the fuck was Meg doing there anyway? What happened to helping Charlie’s parents?? 

As she started to step backwards into the laundry room, wisely choosing to leave the door as it was instead of risking an errant and untimely squeak, Ashlyn felt compelled to look away. It was a strong urge but it took a few seconds to achieve. After one step back she willed herself to move her head, and thus her eyes which were not taking orders from her brain at the moment, down towards the floor and to the right – away from the redhead on top of the desk. But Ashlyn immediately realized that had been a mistake when her eyes found something new and more unsettling than seeing her own daughter in flagrante. The sight of naked Charlie tugging on his erect penis while he enthusiastically ate his girlfriend out was too much for Ashlyn. Her mind lurched in a different direction and she wondered how big his dick actually was because it looked big and that was really saying something because his hands were enormous so it should have looked smaller in comparison...

Her racing, uncomfortable thoughts screeched to a halt, as did everything else in the office, when the broom Ashlyn was still clutching in both hands in front of her banged loudly into the washing machine as she tried desperately to back out of her intrusion. Meg’s head snapped up and turned towards the noise, her dark, lust-filled green eyes locked onto Ashlyn’s horrified hazel ones and then filled with fire. It would take Ashlyn a good bit of time before she could identify what that fire was – equal parts anger and embarrassment with the last remnants of raging libido quickly fading away and replaced by shock.

“What the fuck?!” the redhead shouted but made no move to change position or cover herself up. What was she supposed to cover herself up with?

Charlie had heard the disrupting sound of the broom handle too but had been slower to react. The man was busy and his ears didn’t work as well from their current location between his sexy girlfriend’s thighs. But when he did lift his head and turned to look at the blonde intruder, he made the most logical statement possible, and did so in a surprisingly calm voice.

“Shut the door.”

//

“So that’s all they said?!” Whitney whisper-yelled, her face excited and animated as she tried to get the rest of the story out of her still-dazed best friend 5 hours later. She and Ryan had brought Tommy home from his ERT treatment an hour ago and the boy was settled on the couch with Rusty the cat while Ryan and Becca got dinner ready in the kitchen. Ashlyn and Whitney were huddled in a quiet corner of the dining room praying not to get interrupted. The lawyer knew something was up with her bestie as soon as she set eyes on her that evening but it had taken almost an hour to get everybody settled enough so she could steal the keeper away for the details. The story was too good to be true and Whitney knew that their whole group of friends would have a field day with it for years to come. She would try to be supportive in a minute, but right now she wanted to enjoy the shocking and embarrassing story for all it was worth. “What did you do?!”

“Jesus Whit, I got the fuck out of there” Ashlyn replied with exasperation, her voice low and frustrated. She was annoyed at how funny her best friend found her predicament. “What? Do you think I hung around and gave them pointers or something?” her eyes flashed angrily.

“I don’t know” the lawyer shrugged playfully, her eyes dancing as she tried to rein in her laughter.

Ashlyn gave her another scowl and folded her arms across her chest as she leaned against the hutch. The two best friends looked at each other in tense silence for a minute, Whitney’s bemused face turned slowly into a more compassionate visage and Ashlyn’s upset face finally began to relax just a bit. 

“Aw come on” the lawyer leaned next to her, assuming a similar position, and gently gave her shoulder a friendly bump. “It’s funny Ash. I know you don’t think so yet, but I promise you – it’s hysterical. Meg will think so too. I know she will.”

“Oh my God” Ashlyn let her head drop forward as another nauseating flashback swept through her mind. “How am I ever gonna look at her ever again?”

It was uncharted territory for the four-family friends, at least as far as they knew. Nobody had admitted to walking in on any of their children having sex with another person yet. There had been unfortunate close encounters with at least one kid in each family where one of their parents interrupted them masturbating. Everybody but the Flanagans, that is – Becca was still only 8 years old. Back when Molly Cross had told her horrifying story of walking in on her oldest son Noah pleasuring himself, all the other four-family parents thought it was the worst thing that could happen. But they had been wrong. Molly had been able to back out unseen so only she and Niki had to deal with the hard truth about their maturing boy. Nobody else had been that lucky. All of the other walk-ins had been fully realized by both parties involved. And they had been scarring for everyone.

Whitney wasn’t really sure what to say to make her friend feel better that January evening. She was pretty sure there wasn’t much Ashlyn would be able to say to lift her spirits if their roles were reversed.

“Hey, you know...” she began optimistically and sincerely, “she’s 21. She’s a grown-ass woman. She’s in a committed relationship. She’s in love. And he loves...”

“Don’t bring him up...please...” Ashlyn groaned and closed her eyes.

“Oh yeah, that’s right” the lawyer couldn’t resist the set-up no matter how hard she tried, “he was already up...” she giggled, “waaaay up.”

“Come on!” Ashlyn dropped her jaw and turned her head to face her cackling bestie.

Whitney couldn’t stop laughing though. She bent over and put her hands on her knees as it just kept coming out of her. The keeper hip-checked her as her own face started to smile, reluctantly. The longer Whitney laughed the bigger Ashlyn’s smile grew until, eventually, she was giggling at her ridiculous situation too.

“I’m sorry...” the lawyer finally gasped out. “It’s just too...funny...”

“Holy shit” Ashlyn laughed out once she finally allowed herself to release some of the anxiety she had been holding onto all afternoon. “Oh my fucking God...I can’t BELIEVE that happened” she shook her head and grinned at Whitney once her bestie stood back up – tears of laughter still streaming down the lawyer’s face. 

Ashlyn realized in that moment that, even though it was a very funny story, a lot of what was going on was Whitney releasing her own anxiety from her least favorite day of every single week. Even though Tommy’s treatments and their lives had gotten more routine and less frightening, it was still a big fucking deal. The keeper felt guilty for being upset about something so mundane when Whitney had just spent the day at her son’s bedside while he got injected with a life-saving enzyme cocktail. Perspective wasn’t something that either Ashlyn or Ali lost sight of very often – not after their own painful reminders of how short and sweet life could be. But the keeper had lost sight of it today. Walking in on two consenting adults who were having sex wasn’t the end of the world, even if one of them used to be a little girl you used to bathe and tuck into bed at night.

“Everything ok in here?” Ryan cocked his head as he peeked into the dining room after several more minutes of raucous laughter from both women. “I’m a little nervous and a lot jealous – I think” he chuckled at the sight of two of his favorite women falling over each other they were laughing so hard. There weren’t too many people in the world who could get Whitney Engen Flanagan to this level of silliness and he was grateful again for her best friend’s help on those trying Wednesdays.

“Oh Ry, you won’t believe what happened to Ash today” Whitney motioned him over to them, her words coming out in breathy gasps as she struggled to fill her lungs with air. “You’ve gotta tell him” she giggled at Ashlyn as Ryan approached with a dish towel over his shoulder and a bottle of ketchup in his hand.

“I’m not telling him!” the keeper made an eek face that was extra funny because of the loud, snorting laugh that came out of it. “You tell him!”

“Oh my God, honey, she had to go to Hannah’s condo today to get a package...”

“Holy shit, I forgot the fucking package!” Ashlyn howled with more laughter, quickly followed by Whitney and even Ryan who wasn’t sure what was going on yet but couldn’t keep himself from laughing along with the two besties.

“After all THAT, you left the package behind?!” the lawyer’s voice rose even higher and the ensuing hysterics went on for several more minutes as she shared Ashlyn’s embarrassing story with her husband.

Becca’s call from the living room where she was eating her dinner – Wednesday’s were special days and she was allowed to eat in there on a tray table so she could hang out with Tommy while he rested and they watched a show together – finally broke up the revelry.

“Here, gimme that” Ashlyn took the ketchup from Ryan’s hand and wiped the tears of laughter from her cheeks. “I’m on it. I wanna sit with T-man for a few minutes before I go” she smiled broadly at the pair in front of her who were still chuckling at her story. 

Whitney and Ryan giggled and hugged and giggled some more as their nerves from what was still sometimes a tough day for them emotionally started to ease. They watched the keeper move towards the living room to deliver the ketchup that Becca, who would be 9 years old in 2 months, was certainly old enough to get for herself, and smiled. They heard their daughter’s young voice and then Ashlyn’s sweet reply and felt grateful for so many good things in their lives.

“Ketchup for Ms Becca bug” Ashlyn announced in her terrible British accent, bowing with a flourish and presenting the plastic bottle as if she were a waiter in a fancy restaurant.

“What’s so funny? You guys are so loud” Becca asked adorably and chastised at the same time the way only a kid could.

“What’s that?” Ashlyn cupped her ear as if she was hard of hearing. “I didn’t quite hear you?” she asked and prompted as she sat on the couch next to Tommy and gently patted his legs beneath the comfy blanket.

“Oh” Becca rolled her eyes with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Ah, that’s better” the keeper winked back at the girl with her own bright smile. “You’re welcome.”

“So, what’s so funny?”

“Oh, I was just telling them a funny story about something Meg did today. That’s all.”

“What did she do?”

Ashlyn realized her mistake too late. She should have just avoided the subject entirely because she hated to lie. But she had learned that part of a parent’s job was to lie to their kids – or at least to pick and choose when to fully disclose the truth. It was for the kids’ own protection and peace of mind. She still didn’t like lying though.

“Ummm...something only grown-ups can understand. Sorry” she frowned kindly at the blonde girl who was finally able to dip her French fries in ketchup. “But who knows? Maybe one day when you’re all grown up you’ll do something just as funny to your mom.”

//

It was almost 7pm by the time Ashlyn pulled into the driveway at home and she was beat. She had been so discombobulated about her encounter with Meg that she had completely forgotten about stopping at the Mandarin for lunch. Instead, she had sat outside Becca’s elementary school like a zombie behind the wheel. She was surprised some concerned teacher or administrator hadn’t come out to ask for her ID. The keeper had no idea what she had done with that 50 minutes, but she was glad she had set herself an alarm to snap her out of her stupor so she could leave the Jeep and walk into the school to get Becca.

Once they got to the Flanagan home Ashlyn realized she was starving as she made her goddaughter an afterschool snack. She raided Whitney’s fridge as best she could while helping Becca with her homework and keeping her entertained until the rest of her family got home. Ashlyn had refused Whitney’s invitation to stay for dinner, knowing Ali was home with a sick kid and three other kids. The keeper wanted to hurry home and help. She snagged a few French fries and baby carrots from Becca’s dinner before hitting the road.

“Hey bud, how you feeling?” she asked Drew when she stepped into the front living room to greet him and both dogs who were curled up with him on the big L shaped couch.

“Ummm...” he replied weakly, leaning into Ashlyn’s bent over hug as best he could without pulling his arms out from underneath the blanket. “Ok I guess.”

The keeper took note of the ginger ale can with the distinctive straw in it, the paper plate with plain saltine crackers on it, and the empty and clean trash can nearby. She surmised that he must have graduated from puking every couple of hours to drinking and the earliest stages of putting something safe and easy back into his stomach. Her own hunger roared at her when she eyed the crackers longingly.

“Hey” Ali’s tired voice called from the mudroom door where she leaned her whole body into the door jamb and rested her forehead there too. “Everything ok? You didn’t text me back.”

“Yeah, sorry” Ashlyn tousled Drew’s longer, thick hair and moved to her wife. “All Flanagans are fine” she smiled softly and pecked Ali’s lips. “And they really appreciated my mask” she joked but it was the truth.

“The new cocktail was ok?” the brunette asked about Tommy specifically.

“Yes” the keeper pulled her wife off the door jamb and gave her a big hug, walking them two steps into the mudroom and closer to the kitchen. “No side effects besides a low fever. But he seemed good when I left. He asked if we could play tonight...”

“Aw, that’s a good sign right there” Ali smiled with relief and tucked her head into her wife’s warm neck. “But you’re not, right?”

“No, he feels pretty good but he’s already asleep by now. I guarantee it.”

Ashlyn was that grown-up. The one who all the kids adored because she paid attention to them and she played games with them and she wasn’t afraid to be silly with them. It had always been that way, even back with her teammates’ kids when she was playing professional soccer. And now, even the obnoxious teenager contingent of kids in her life tolerated her far more easily and sincerely than they did any other adults. Tommy and his situation had made a permanent hole in Ashlyn’s heart and she tried her best to fill it back in, any way that she could think of. Sometimes she filled it with caring for Whitney – doing nice thoughtful things for her that nobody else would ever do. But most of the time she filled that hole in her heart by spending time with Tommy. They were all busy, all 11 members of the Krieger and Flanagan families, so it wasn’t easy for Ashlyn to hang out with the boy, but she had taken a page out of Kyle and Nathan’s book. 

Before they started being foster dads and then adopted Edgar and Cristina, Kyle and Nathan used to play video games with Drew all the time online. It was one of the more endearing things Kyle had ever done as an uncle. Kyle didn’t love video games and he wasn’t very good at them, but he went and bought himself a gaming system like the one Drew had and spent time learning how to play whatever game his nephew was playing at the time.

Ashlyn did the same thing with Tommy. Sometimes several of the Krieger kids would join her in the family room and they would take turns playing the game with Tommy. Most of the time it was just the keeper though. When Ali listed off the many things she loved about her wonderful wife, watching and listening to her engage with frail little Tommy Flanagan as they navigated their way through whatever Lego game he was into at any given time, was always fighting for a spot at the top of the list. Ali could sit and listen to that for hours. She and Whitney had shared similar stories at the office one day about how moved they were by the sweet interaction.

“Oh I’m so glad he did so good today. How was Whit?”

Ashlyn took a few minutes and filled Ali in on the Flanagan experience, telling her everything except the Meg story as they moved into the kitchen. She was too hungry to go there yet.

“Hey, where’s my Mandarin?” Ali finally realized there was no take-out bag with her late dinner on the counter next to the fridge. She took a beat and gave her keeper’s cheek a kiss, loving how thoughtful and kind she always was. “It’s cool if you gave it to Whit...”

“Uh, I didn’t get a chance to stop” the keeper explained vaguely. “I should have told you. Sorry baby.”

Normally Ali wouldn’t be too upset by something like that. She might be slightly annoyed because Ashlyn hadn’t told her about the change in their plans – if she had, then Ali would have made herself dinner when she fed the kids. But that night, after such a hard week already, the brunette was tired and cranky. And hungry.

“Oh” Ali removed herself from the blonde and opened the refrigerator with an annoyed frown. “Yeah, that would have been nice.”

“I uh...I had a weird afternoon...”

“Yeah, well I had a terrible afternoon” Ali replied with aggravation in her voice, “and the only thing that was getting me through it was the thought of chicken chow mein and potstickers and house fried rice and...” 

“Mom, can we go look now, pleeeeease?” Dodge interrupted them, coming around the corner of the counter from the pantry and family room with his drumsticks in one fist and finding himself unexpectedly standing behind Ashlyn. “Mama” he grinned and smacked her on her butt hard with his free hand. He was excited because he had just finished practicing and knew he was going to crush his private drum lesson the next day.

“Ow, Dodger, come on” the keeper turned around and gave him a stern look. Her face softened quickly though. She knew he was just happy to see her and that was a wonderful thing that she knew had a pretty severe shelf life. Sooner than she wanted to think about, Dodge would be as indifferent about her existence as his big brother was now. “I’m glad to see you too big guy, but go easy on the swats would ya?” she chuckled as she hugged him. “You’re too strong. I can’t take it” she smiled when she felt him return the hug with enthusiasm and laugh with her.

“Yeah. I’m strong” he stated and smirked proudly and adorably at the same time.

“No, we’ll do it tomorrow when I get home” Ali replied with a sigh, disappointed that she hadn’t been able to grant Dodge his simple request from earlier in the afternoon.

“Look for what?”

“He needs my old hard hat for something at school on Friday.”

Ashlyn’s curiosity was piqued but she was too hungry to ask about it and take in whatever story went along with it.

“How about we look for it tomorrow after school?” she gave the boy a hopeful smile.

“Yeah. Cool” Dodge nodded, gave his Mama a goofy grin, and then launched into one of their complicated secret handshakes.

“Do you want some of this if I put it on the stove and get it crispy again?” Ali, recovered from her bout of brattiness, asked her keeper about the leftover chicken cutlet dinner from two nights ago. She couldn’t help but smile at the cute exchange between her wife and son. “It won’t take long.”

“Yes! Baby, that sounds awesome” Ashlyn gave her beautiful brunette a grateful and appreciative look before pulling her in for a quick but real kiss. “I love you. I’m sorry. Thank you” she said between quick additional pecks that made her cranky wife soften even more.

“Ok, ok, you’re forgiven” Ali quirked an eyebrow at the blonde but Ashlyn knew it was mostly for fun. “But don’t tease me like that next time. Just come home with it or don’t, but don’t tell me about it in advance...”

“I hear you my Queen” Ashlyn patted the brunette’s butt as she moved towards the stove. Then she turned to Dodge. “See, you don’t have to do it so hard. Nobody likes that.”

Before they could get into a discussion about the appropriateness of smacking somebody’s butt in the first place, Lily joined them from the mudroom.

“Drew says he’s hungry” she shrugged and laughed lightly. 

Nobody was sure what was funny about the statement but that was typical Lily. She had her own thing going on and those closest to her had learned that they weren’t always going to understand it. Dodge always got it though. It was that twin thing. He always understood what she meant, no matter what. Sometimes he interpreted and explained to his family and sometimes he just laughed with her instead.

“He’s hungry” he chuckled. “That’s funny.”

“Lily” Ali sighed and her shoulders slumped. Her voice was pleading but there was no anger behind it. “How many times have I told you not to go near Drew today?”

“I know. A lot” the girl made one of her patented slightly embarrassed eek faces. It was almost always followed by a nervous giggle and averted eyes that looked down and sideways quickly in several different directions – anywhere but at whomever was frustrated with her. “But I, ummm...I...I...” she giggled again when she heard herself stutter just a bit. 

It was a real rarity anymore but the stutter did occasionally pop up if she was super excited or really nervous. Or like that night when she was already in hot water and knew she was about to make it even worse.

Ali and Ashlyn glanced at each other when they heard the stutter. They knew their girl. They knew something was coming. Both moms were stressed enough that week with the rolling stomach flu plague following so closely after Ashlyn’s work trip. And it was taking everything they both had to try and salvage their evening as it was. It was even harder not to jump down Lily’s throat and tell her to spit out whatever bombshell she was about to drop. Years of being patient with her as a young girl learning to overcome her stutter helped both Ali and Ashlyn stay quiet in that moment in the kitchen. Ashlyn held her breath. Ali bit the inside of her cheek.

“Just say it Wee” Dodge nodded surprisingly sweet encouragement. Sometimes he could be brusque with it, but not in that moment.

“Ok” Lily took a deep breath and blew it out after giving her brother a quick and appreciative look. When she spoke, her words were clear and true and both moms took them in with a groan and a shudder. “I have to bring cookies to school tomorrow...”

//

“So are you gonna tell me about your weird afternoon?” Ali mumbled later that night when they were finally in bed.

“Hmmm?” Ashlyn turned her head to the left with her eyes still closed.

They were both lying on their backs with only their forearms touching between them. They were too tired to move. Ali was hoping her keeper would roll towards her and maybe she would find the energy to roll over herself and let Ashlyn spoon her. The blonde was hoping her wife would come and snuggle into her side so she didn’t have to do anything but lift her arm up to receive her. 

“Love you” Ali mumbled some more.

“Love you too” came the equally quiet response.

Ashlyn didn’t feel good at all, and she was chalking it up to not getting a nap that day and not eating enough either. The last thing she felt was Ali reaching for and holding her hand, then giving it a soft squeeze with what she knew was the brunette’s final ounce of energy. The last thing Ashlyn thought as her body and mind both shut down abruptly was that she hoped she wasn’t getting sick.


	4. Dodge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How amazing is it that both Ali and Ashlyn got to play full 90s in last night's game???!!!  
> The only thing better was when Aly Wagner was talking about Ashlyn and the line-up graphic at the beginning of the game and said "and in front of her is her wife.." !!! My gay little heart exploded with joy. Unbelievable. Absolutely unfreakingbelievable.

Dodge Christopher Krieger woke up three different times Thursday morning but didn’t get out of bed until the third time. The first time he woke up was at 6am. That used to be the time he naturally woke up when he was younger. But that was when he used to fall asleep at 8pm too. Now that he was older and staying awake until 9pm, he didn’t often wake up at 6am anymore. Also, Josie had made a lot of noise that morning when she got into the shower at 6am. Dodge wasn’t sure but he thought she and Mom might have been arguing about something in the hall just outside his door. He had woken up the second time just after 6:30am when Drew had banged the toilet seat up, or down?, much too loudly in the boys’ bathroom. At first Dodge thought his older brother was getting into the shower, which made no sense because he’d miss the school bus if he did that. Then he vaguely remembered that Drew had been sick yesterday and was probably staying home today to finish recovering, just like Dodge himself had done on Tuesday and Lily had done yesterday.

The third time Dodge woke up it was to his mom’s gentle voice. He loved morning times when his moms were soft and snuggly. He wouldn’t admit that to too many people, maybe not any people actually, but it was still true. Mama always gave him a little tug on his earlobe, whichever one she could get at, before giving him a kiss on his cheek when she woke him up. Dodge was 10 years and 8 months old and he wasn’t always great at setting his alarm for the morning. That meant sweet, snuggly wake-ups most mornings. He was a very bright kid, maybe not quite as smart as Josie but lots smarter than most other kids. Nobody had to know the real reason behind him ‘forgetting’ to set his alarm. That would be his little secret.

“Morning sweet boy” Ali spoke softly and gently as she sat on the bed and rubbed her youngest son’s back that Thursday morning at 7am sharp. “It’s time to wake up, love” she bent down and pressed a tender kiss to his still slightly chubby little cheek.

Dodge’s body processed the loving maternal touches it was feeling, and a small smile began to form at the corners of his mouth as he swam up towards consciousness out of slumber. But wait, something was different, something was missing. He thought quickly as he felt more lovely rubs on his back and his arm and a ruffle of his shaggy blonde hair. Where was his earlobe tug? Had he missed it? He rolled over onto his back and stretched before slowly opening his eyes. He blinked a few times and yawned while he processed his surroundings. Oh. That’s what was different. It was Mom, not Mama. Dodge loved both his mothers equally and wouldn’t be able to choose one over the other no matter how high the stakes were. But it was Ashlyn who normally woke him up while Ali hustled to get herself ready for work at that time in the morning. Mom was the one who usually did his wake-ups on the weekends. What was going on? Was it really already Saturday and Dodge had just messed up the days? Maybe his stomach bug at the beginning of the week had really confused his internal clock or something. What did he know about that anyway?

“Where’s Mama?” he asked, his voice raspy still with sleep.

He didn’t mean to hurt Ali’s feelings. He was genuinely curious about the change in schedule. Josie might have asked the same thing in his place, but Drew and Lily would never have picked up on the change in the first place. Ali took a slow, steadying breath as she handled the first barb of the day. She had been enjoying the tender wake-up time, trying to find the silver lining in the fact that Ashlyn had been up half the night throwing up and that she herself would now have to stay home from work another day this week to take care of her sick household. The brunette knew her son didn’t mean anything by his question, but his words still stung.

“She’s sick” she brushed some of the hair away from his forehead and smiled at him. “You’re stuck with me this morning. Sorry.”

Her heart jumped when she saw his whole face change into that of a lovable smiling cherub at her soft and kind words. She was thankful she hadn’t snapped at him. Just as he hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, she wouldn’t have meant to take out her frustration and lack of sleep on him.

“Did she throw up?” he asked, awake enough now to get his mind working on the logistics of what his mother had just told him.

“She did” Ali nodded and let him take her hand in both of his on his stomach. He spread her fingers out one by one and moved them around, surprisingly gently.

“Was it a lot? How many times?”

“It was a lot” Ali’s eyes went wide as she entertained her son’s penchant for looking at and hearing about gross things. “A whole lot” she made an eek face and kept on going. “It smelled horrible and looked disgusting and she threw up three times...”

“Three times?!” he was awake now and his face was animated and alive. “That’s a lot” he chuckled. “Poor Mama.”

The kids all knew Ashlyn was useless when it came to vomit. She hated everything about it and it practically debilitated all of her movement and actions. Even when she was sick herself, she couldn’t deal with it. It was actually worse because she had to taste it in her mouth and that was the worst of the worst for poor Mama.

“Yeah, poor Mama” Ali agreed. 

She tried not to be bitter about the fact that none of the kids ever seemed to feel sorry for the poor parent who was doing all the nursing and cleaning up. But she had to admit, it made her mad. Only Meg had ever acknowledged it and that hadn’t been until she was in college and had tried to do some things on her own already. But that’s just the way it was with kids. They didn’t understand so many things until they were much older.

“Is Drew still sick too?”

“He’s feeling a lot better, but he’s staying home from school today. But Lily’s going to school with you” she answered his next question before he had to ask it. “And I’ve gotta go get her up so you need to get in the shower for me now, ok big guy?”

“Yep” he yawned one more time and sat up. He released Ali’s hand and pushed the covers off of himself in one smooth move, hopping out of bed and stripping his Marvel Avenger two-piece pajamas off as he walked into the bathroom. “Can I have cereal for breakfast?”

“Yes you can, honey” Ali chuckled to herself as she crossed to his bedroom door. He always had cereal for breakfast, about three bowls of it, but she thought it was cute that he still asked for it like that. “Don’t forget to take your time rinsing the shampoo out of your hair, ok?”

“Ok Mom, got it” he called over his shoulder as he turned the water on in the shower and waited for the temperature to get just the way he liked it before stepping into it.

When he made his way downstairs 20 minutes later, fully dressed, with his hair combed and his teeth brushed, he could hear his mom struggling to get his twin sister moving. Lily was the worst in the mornings anyway, forget about if she’d had a Monday holiday and then two sick days already that week. He shook his head and trotted down the front stairs with both dogs at his heels. Logan sometimes waited for Lily but usually accompanied Dodge in the mornings. Frankie was less structured and did whatever she felt like from day to day. Sometimes she went up and down the stairs with Ali and Ashlyn and each kid every single time.

Dodge got the cereal box out of the pantry and the milk out of the fridge and carried them both to the nook table. On his way back to the kitchen for his bowl and spoon he stopped at the coffee table in the family room and used the remote to turn on the tv and change to his favorite morning cartoon channel. Dodge wasn’t any taller than either of his sisters but that was pretty normal, according to both his moms. They told him boys usually had their growth spurt later than girls. So far he was trusting them but he was getting pretty tired of waiting to get taller. He was about 4’6” tall and he was sick of having to drag one of the kitchen chairs over to get his cereal bowl out of the cupboard above the counter by the fridge. It was just annoying. He was just tall enough to reach the bottom shelf of the upper cupboards, but that was it. It was extra important to him because Drew was tall enough to reach almost everything in there, but not quite, and he rubbed it in every chance he got. His favorite nickname for his younger brother those days was ‘short stack’, closely followed by ‘shrimp’. Drew didn’t tease Josie or Lily about being 4’6” tall but he went out of his way to torture his kid brother about it.

When he was done eating about 30 minutes later, he brought his empty bowl and spoon to the kitchen sink and noticed Josie’s plate and glass and knife for her peanut butter toast was still there. He shrugged, assuming the dishwasher was full, and added his dishes to the sink too. He looked down at his shirt where he had spilled some milk as he drained it out of the bowl with his mouth back at the table. He spent a solid 15 seconds considering whether or not to go up and change it, before deciding he was good to go as he was. He looked at the clock. 7:55am. He plopped himself on the family room couch to watch more cartoons and patted Frankie when she hopped up next to him. Logan was on the floor next to them, snoring again already.

“Lily, I swear to God...” Ali’s frustrated voice arrived in the family room before her fast-moving body did at 8:02am.

Dodge was zoned out and completely engrossed in the tv, but he was dimly aware of his mother and sister in the kitchen. Another quick check of the clock told him he had 8 minutes left before he had to get up and put his shoes and coat on so they could leave the house at 8:15am.

“I’m right here” Lily replied to her mother’s mostly rhetorical statement. “I’m ready, I’m ready.”

“You need to eat something and we don’t have time today to mess around so don’t test me...”

“Can I have berries and Nutella?” she asked for her usual go-to and favorite breakfast.

The problem was that Lily had to have the stems off of the strawberries and then the strawberries had to be sliced so she could dip them in the Nutella. If she didn’t get them sliced then the ratio of Nutella to strawberry would be off.

“We don’t have time today. I’m sorry” Ali went to the fridge and pulled out a squeezable yogurt and a string cheese and handed them to her daughter who was pouting by the pantry with a single serving Nutella in her hand. “What did I just say to you?” the brunette’s temper was flaring.

“But what if you don’t slice them. Then we have time, right?”

“No honey” Ali sighed but appreciated the creative workaround her daughter had tried to come up with. “We still need to wash them...”

“I can wash them” Lily tried again hopefully, putting on her best smile.

Ali hesitated for only a split-second before making up her mind.

“Fine. You go get your shoes on and your backpack and your flute and your music and stand right here” she patted the small 2-person kitchen table as she hurried by it towards the sink with the container of strawberries in her hand, “and you can have your berries. Hurry up while I wash them.”

Lily scampered to the dining room for her school things then the mudroom for her shoes and was back in a flash with a cheerful giggle.

“Dodge did you let the dogs out?” Ali called into the family room as she hastily washed the strawberries. She let 30 seconds go by before she tried again, this time louder. “Dodge, did you let the dogs out?!”

“Not yet.”

“You need to do it now. We’ve gotta go” she instructed as she quickly dried off 4 big strawberries and started to pick off the green stems and leaves at the kitchen table with Lily eagerly watching her. Two strawberries later she was annoyed. “Dodge Krieger!”

Ali felt bad for yelling and probably waking poor Ashlyn up, directly above them, but she had no choice. There was a lot to do and the unrelenting morning schedule was stressing her out. She had to stop at the store for more cleaning supplies and various medicines on her way home after taking the kids to school. She was about to storm into the family room and turn the tv off but heard her son open the side door there and urge the dogs to go outside.

“Thank you!” she called out as she finished with the strawberries. 8:09am. “Eat fast Lil” she nodded at her daughter. “We’ve gotta be out the door in 6 minutes and I’ve still gotta box up your cupcakes...”

Ali’s heart sank and her blood pressure soared as another stark realization hit her.

“Oh yeah” Lily giggled. “Remember last night when I said cookies but they were really supposed to be cupcakes?”

“That was funny” Dodge grinned as he came into the kitchen with a yawn.

“Well we can’t bring these to school now” Ali’s anguished voice was quiet as her mind whirled. 

“But why not?” Lily asked with a mouthful of mostly Nutella and a little bit of strawberry. “I have to bring them. Mr. Hebert said...”

“It doesn’t matter” Ali cut her off, shaking her head. “Mama helped you make them and she’s sick now so we can’t bring these to school and risk getting everybody sick...”

It had been a good plan last night in the rush to get things done. Ali made them their leftover dinner and Ashlyn and Lily made the cupcakes. Then they had all, including Josie and excluding sick Drew, helped frost them just before bedtime. Teamwork on full display. 

“That would be so awesome” Dodge laughed and poked his sister a couple of times for no real reason other than he was feeling more awake again. “The whole class...No! the whole SCHOOL throwing up” he laughed even louder.

Ali was done deliberating and she spun around to face the twins and the quickly unraveling morning.

“I’ll have to go buy some after I drop you guys off” she strategized as she put the rest of the strawberries back in the fridge. “I’ll bring them to the office for you as soon as I get them.”

“But we did the frosting on those” Lily whined with another little pout.

“Hurry up with your breakfast now” the brunette rubbed her daughter’s arm and kissed the top of her head. “And don’t be upset about the cupcakes. There’s nothing we can do honey. These things happen. It’s ok.”

“Oh geez, she’s not gonna cry is she?” Dodge rolled his eyes and then his head dramatically. He got even closer to his sister and leaned his own face right in front of hers to get a good look for himself. “You’re not gonna cry, are you Wee?”

“That’s enough” Ali frowned at him. “Go get your backpack and put your shoes on Dodger. Now. We’ve gotta go.”

“Umm, is that what you’re wearing?” he gave her a concerned look.

“Just go on” Ali pointed towards the dining room as she looked down at what she was wearing.

In all the hubbub that morning she hadn’t had a chance to get dressed yet. She was still wearing her BC Eagles pajama pants and New England Patriots sleep t-shirt under one of Ashlyn’s old ratty Nike sweatshirts, and warm fuzzy slippers.

“Shit” she whispered mostly to herself, but both kids heard her and twittered animatedly about it. Ashlyn was the one who usually got caught swearing by the kids, not Ali. She cleared her throat and gave them both a serious look. “Do what I just told you to do” she pointed at Dodge. “And you too” she gestured towards the strawberries on the paper towels in front of Lily. “Eat those strawberries, not just the Nutella” she scowled and then turned to run up the back stairs. “I’ll be right down and you’d both better be standing by the door with your coats on ready to go. Instruments and music too!” there was a brief pause. “And somebody let the dogs back in!”

//

5th grade was pretty cool and Dodge really enjoyed being one of the kingpins of the school. He was smart and athletic and popular with both his classmates and his teachers. He was almost too good to be true. Everybody kept waiting for some kind of fatal flaw in him to develop or be revealed. But it never happened. Dodge kept being his lovable goofball self and remained refreshingly drama-free. His worst qualities were that he never stopped to think if the person he was going to attack with his love or his playfulness or his boredom was ready to receive it; and that he could sometimes be a bully when he was trying to goad someone into playing with him. His best qualities were his loyalty, his kindness, and the ease with which he was able to open up that big soft heart of his. Whether that continued through his teenage years or not still remained to be seen, but his moms were hopeful. It was nearly impossible for them to picture Dodge as a sullen, jaded, judgmental teenager. But they were trying to prepare for it anyway, just in case.

Like the rest of the Krieger kids, Dodge had a busy schedule during the school year. It was winter now so he traded in his football cleats for basketball sneakers as he had been doing for the past several years. He stilled played indoor soccer on Sundays as did Lily and Drew. All four Krieger kids played soccer in the fall as their primary sport. Josie had decided to try gymnastics this winter for her second sport but the twins both loved playing soccer – it was their favorite sport. Dodge continued to play up with boys 2 or 3 years older, and he was still usually the best player on the team. In the Spring he would switch from basketball to baseball and then the whole cycle would repeat in the Fall.

He was also really beginning to love playing the drums in the elementary school band. His moms knew he was hooked because he had somehow managed to not break the snare drum they had bought for him to practice on at home the year before. That was a miracle in and of itself, but it showed Ali and Ashlyn that he cared enough about it to be extra careful with it. They hadn’t told him yet, but they were going to get him a full drum set. They wanted to wait for his birthday in May but he was ready for it now and it seemed counterproductive to make him wait for some arbitrary date – no matter how meaningful that date was in other ways. The real question was where the hell to put it? Neither mom relished the idea of having it in the house, not even in the basement. But Ashlyn worked from the loft in the garage so that wasn’t an ideal spot either. Careful consideration needed to be given before any purchase was made.

Dodge also still sang in the elementary school chorus, but to be fair, every kid sang in the elementary school chorus. But he really sang his heart out and was better than most of his classmates. The catch was he didn’t like to sing by himself, so he turned down any solos that had been offered to him. This went against every hambone instinct in his bold personality, but there it was. But if you put him in the chorus with a bunch of other kids he was a real belter. His moms were sure that Dodge’s music interests would wane once he got to high school and sports began to dominate everything. But in the meantime they encouraged their boy, as they had done with all of their kids, to play the drums and sing in chorus and participate in as many plays as he could fit into his schedule. The play participation had only happened a couple of times so far though. He enjoyed it both times but getting him to rehearsals and sports practice and music lessons was too much for all of them – parents and kid alike. When Josie and Lily performed in plays it was when they only participated in one sport. There was a balance that had to be maintained and both moms were careful to try and keep their busy kids from overextending themselves. Both Ali and Ashlyn strongly believed that kids needed to have time to just be kids.

Dodge went to school every day from 8:30am to 2:30pm. Ali dropped he and Lily off in the morning and Ashlyn picked them up in the afternoon. This winter Dodge’s youth basketball team, coached again by Ashlyn, practiced Tuesdays from 5-6pm. When Drew’s high school JV team played games on Tuesday nights, which was most weeks, Dodge and his Mama would grab a quick dinner together and then go to the game early to watch warmups. Then Ali and the girls would join them. Dodge’s private drum lesson up in Rockport was on Thursdays from 4-5pm. Drew’s other basketball game each week was usually on Friday nights and the whole family attended together whenever possible. Saturdays were for youth basketball games for all three of the youngest Kriegers and Sundays were for indoor soccer. 

On the school days when he didn’t have practice or his music lesson, Dodge was expected to do his homework and practice his drumming, just like his siblings. As 5th graders, he and Lily had some sort of homework or at least reading assignments every night. And all the kids were required to practice their instruments three times a week, for 30 minutes each. That was the deal if they wanted Ali and Ashlyn to keep paying for private lessons for them. Dodge spent one or two afternoons a week with friends from school, either at the big old house or one of their houses. It rotated among 2 or 3 different houses and involved about 6 boys from Dodge’s class. 

It could get extremely rowdy if more than 4 of them got together at once and it happened fairly often. Those were the days when whatever parent was hosting the hang needed lots of patience and sometimes a big loud voice. Ashlyn was convinced that the boys weren’t willfully ignoring her basic requests when they would come and hang out at the big old house. She was sure that they simply couldn’t hear her over all the other noise and excitement going on – both in the basement as well as inside their own spastic heads. She was now famous, or infamous, for scaring the crap out of all 6 of the boys one afternoon, even Dodge. The keeper had asked them four times to stop banging whatever they were banging against whatever pipe they had found down there because it could break and nobody wanted to have to call a plumber. When she heard the banging again she went to the top of the stairs and bellowed in her loudest former-goalkeeper pitch voice.

“The next person who bangs anything into any pipe is going to regret it! A lot!”

She never heard the pipe banged again, at least not that day anyway. And Dodge had revealed to her several days later that one of his friends had actually peed himself a little because she had scared him. Ashlyn loved that story and used it to her advantage whenever she could – not the peeing part, just the scaring part. 

//

“Move numbnuts” Drew said irritably when Dodge walked into the mudroom after school that afternoon. 

Lily and Ali were close behind him and saw the near collision between the two brothers. Dodge had overzealously kicked one of his boots off and lost his balance. Drew had just come up from the basement and was on his way through the mudroom towards the kitchen with a paper plate in his hand with leftover crumbs from the French bread pizza he had eaten for lunch. They met awkwardly near the desk.

“Somebody’s feeling better I see” Ali blew out a breath, disappointed for the millionth time by the way Drew talked to his kid brother. She gave the teen a testy frown. “Don’t be such a jerk.”

“Can we finish the movie now?” Lily asked and started to turn left into the front living room until Ali put her hand on the girl’s shoulder and steered her back into the mudroom and towards the dining room.

“Everybody stay out of the living room” the brunette announced loudly. “Mama’s sick so leave her alone and keep your distance. We’re not getting this stomach thing again so wash your hands right now.”

“Aw Mom” all four young Krieger voices echoed loudly, even Josie who was already sitting at the dining room table working on her homework.

“Just do it guys, come on” Ali herded the twins towards the first-floor half bath and nudged Drew towards the kitchen sink.

“Then can we finish the movie?” Lily tried again hopefully.

“No Lil, we’ll finish it tonight” the brunette replied with the same answer the kids always got when they asked that question. “And don’t go in the basement either” she added, almost forgetting. “I’ve gotta disinfect it first. Drew’s been down there all day.”

“Is he still sick?” Dodge asked with wide eyes.

“I think he’s all better, but just in case...”

“Oooh, can we look for your builder helmet now?” Dodge’s eyes lit up. “Before my music lesson?” he gave his mother one of his sweetest smiles as he waited for Lily and Josie to finish washing their hands in the half bath. “Mama said we could do it after school today...”

“Backpacks in the dining room, let’s go” Ali urged the afternoon routine forward, wondering why the kids didn’t automatically follow it on their own after all this time. “Let’s see what you’ve got for homework so we know how much time you’ll need...”

“Can we Mom, pleeeeease?” Dodge tried again as he took his turn washing his hands. He splashed water on the floor because he kept turning his body around to try and get a look at his mother.

Ali stood in the congested hallway where the bathroom, basement door, entrance to the dining room, and entrance to the mudroom all converged and took a deep, steadying breath. She made a quick game plan in her head for how the next 45 minutes would go before she had to take Dodge to Rockport for his drum lesson. Thankfully it was the only extra-curricular event on the schedule that day because youth sports hadn’t resumed practices yet. Thank God.

Find her hard hat.  
Sanitize the basement.  
Take Dodge to Rockport and pray nothing crazy went on at home during the 110 minutes she would be gone.

“Yes” she exhaled and gave Dodge a nod. “But go right into the storage side of the basement. Don’t touch anything else on the way down.”

“Yessss!!!” he dried his hands so quickly that they were still damp and then took off down the basement steps. Frankie ran after him, thinking they were about to play some fun new game.

Ali couldn’t help but chuckle at Dodge’s enthusiasm. As usual. The smile stayed on her face as she followed the boy down the basement stairs.

“So, are you gonna tell me what you need my old hard hat for, or what?” Ali asked conversationally as she tried to peer into the clear plastic storage totes that were neatly stacked on shelves in the unfinished side of the basement. 

There was a door at the foot of the basement stairs, on the right, that stayed closed all the time because the storage side of the basement wasn’t heated. That half of the basement, that sat under the left side of the house – under the front parlor and the dining room and the family room, was where all the typical basement things lived. The fusebox and boiler and furnace and hot water heater. The workbench that wasn’t used as often as the one in the garage. The extra refrigerator and full-size freezer, and the rows of shelves with plastic storage totes full of things they hardly ever used but didn’t want to throw away. 

Dodge was randomly lifting the lids off the totes without pulling them forward or looking inside them. He wasn’t in a completely manic mode, but he wasn’t really helping either. Frankie followed him expectantly, looking occasionally at Ali to make sure not to miss whatever was going to happen.

“Well, it’s for school” he replied absent-mindedly, lifting more tote lids and enjoying the loud snapping sound they made as he did so. He was the only kid who was strong enough to pop them up without much struggle. Even Drew would have required two hands and complained about it.

“I know it’s for school, knucklehead” Ali chuckled and honed-in on a tote that looked promising. “But what for? A book report?”

Before she could offer more possibilities, Dodge laughed at himself.

“Yeah, of course you know it’s for school” he chuckled and shook his head as he grinned. “We’re doing a...” he struggled to come up with the right descriptive phrase, “I forget the word...like a work show thing...”

“Oh, a career day or a job fair?” she offered.

“Yeah, that’s it” he nodded and got back to popping lids up. “Career Day. But in teams. Like...” he paused again to get his thoughts in order, “four of us are doing ours and it’s how buildings get made.”

“Gotcha. And you need the hard hat because one of you is gonna be the builder. Makes sense. I like it.”

“No, I’m the builder” he turned and gave his mother a confused look, expecting her to understand the whole thing even though he had only just started to explain it to her for the very first time. “That’s my job.”

“Well tell me about it. I don’t know” she shrugged with a smile.

He spent the next 5 minutes explaining how he and 3 of his buddies from class divvied up the roles and how he knew he had seen pictures of himself dressed for Halloween as a builder when he was little. It never occurred to him that there was no way his mother’s hard hat would ever have fit onto his tiny head back then and that he had been wearing a little kids’ costume. Dodge picked the role because he thought it would be easy, and also because for a short while he had wanted to grow up and be just like George, their builder. That had changed to soldier which had morphed into police officer once he met Officer Fulkerson.

“Aha! Found it!” Ali exclaimed victoriously. “Thank God.”

“Yes!! Nice job Mommy!”

As if the sight of the cherubic 10-1/2 year old boy jogging over to her wasn’t sweet enough, Ali’s heart melted when she heard him call her Mommy. None of the kids did that very much anymore, unless they were sick or in some other kind of real distress. 

“Here you go bud” she grinned and inspected the hard hat. “We can adjust the strap inside so it fits your head instead of mine...”

“Cool” he jumped to a stop in front of Ali and wrapped his arms around her waist tightly. “Thanks Mom.”

“You’re welcome sweetheart” she hugged him back with one arm and got her first look at all the lids he had popped open. “Wow, you’ve been busy” she shook her head but couldn’t help but grin. “How fast do you think you can run around and close all those now?”

Dodge looked up at her with competitive fire in his eyes. Ali and Ashlyn both knew that look. It was the look of someone who could be truly great at whatever they chose to pursue in life – because they loved to compete and be challenged. The moms had talked about it often but as Dodge grew and matured they were more certain than ever that he could be a successful professional athlete. Hell, he could probably do it in 2 or 3 different sports if he wanted. 

“I can do it soooo fast” Dodge handed her the hard hat back and got into a ready stance next to his mom with a determined look on his face and that fire in his eyes. “Time me.”

//

“Mama Mama!” Dodge shouted excitedly as he burst through the mudroom door at 5:45pm. “Guess what happened at my lesson?!”

The boy ripped the winter boots off of his feet and dropped his coat on the floor before bounding into the front living room lit up from the inside like a disco ball.

“Whoa, whoa...easy dude, take it easy” Ashlyn tried to calm the boy, and protect herself from the two dogs who were now just as excitedly jumping all over her because of Dodge’s enthusiasm. All this in her weakened state and behind her germ mask. “Ahhh...help!” she cried from her cozy spot under the blanket on the couch in the quarantine room.

Dodge laughed at his mother’s predicament, genuinely appreciating the humor in it, and bounded over to the couch to try and pull Logan off of it before she stepped right on top of Ashlyn’s ailing stomach. The keeper gave the big dog a push towards Dodge and then bent her knees and pulled her legs up to shield herself from Frankie’s spastic hopping too.

“Oh my God, they’re crazy!” he laughed again.

“I wonder why?” she groaned but was happy for the influx of energy. It had been a long, lonely day for the keeper. “Thanks bud” she spoke again once the dogs were on the floor. “So what happened? Tell me...”

“Dodge, you’re not supposed to be in here” Ali leaned her head into the front living room from the mudroom still wearing her coat and carrying 2 large pizzas. She shook her head at both Dodge and Ashlyn and went into the kitchen with everybody’s dinner. “If he gets sick again you’re handling it” she called over her shoulder.

“She’s right” the keeper nodded at her son and then spoke louder, hoping her softer than usual voice would carry into the kitchen and to her wife’s ears. “You’re right honey! Sorry!”

“But...” Dodge began to object.

“Just stand over there, in the mudroom and talk to me” Ashlyn suggested as she sat up more and turned her body 90 degrees to use the short end of the L-shaped couch so she could see him better. “And don’t breathe from this room. Breathe from the other way so you don’t get any germs.”

Dodge did as he was told, knowing it would be faster to just follow instructions.

“Roy let me play the rotos!” he practically shouted. 

“No way!”

“Yeah, he did! It was soooo awesome!!”

Dodge had been fixated on playing the rotos since Drew’s holiday concert at the high school the month before. Depending on what day it was, Dodge’s biggest desire was either to play the rotos or to get a rainbow mohawk. Both dreams had come to the forefront of his consciousness after seeing high school senior and all-around cool dude Kellen Sanderson before that holiday concert. Roy, the drum instructor at the Rockport music education center, didn’t let just anybody play his drums. Only serious students who respected his teaching program even had a chance of getting to play something as cool as the rotos. Ashlyn knew that her son had asked to play them every lesson since that holiday concert – thankfully for Roy there had only been two so far.

“He said I need to get bigger before I can play them in a parade though, that kinda sucks” Dodge shrugged with a flash of sadness that was quickly replaced by another grin and a goofier shrug.

“Well duh” Ashlyn tried to give him all the energy she could muster because it was a very big moment for him and she knew it. “But that’s ok. You’ll be big and strong enough by the time you’re in high school. No doubt. Then you can carry them in all the parades the marching band does.”

“Oh yeah, ugh” his shoulders slumped and he dropped his head back dramatically. “There’s no marching band until high school. That sucks too.”

“That’ll give you 3-1/2 more years to get really good at snare and bass and cymbals...” the keeper tried to encourage him but she was losing steam.

“Come on honey” Ali held the boy’s shoulders from behind and gave them a soft squeeze. She smiled down at him when he tilted his head straight back in an effort to look up at her without turning around. “Time for dinner. Let’s eat before the pizza gets cold.”

“I was telling Mama about the rotos!” he spun around and jumped up and down a couple of times in his undiluted excitement.

“I know. So great” Ali grinned at him, happy to share his contagious enthusiasm for even a moment. “Best way to get big and strong is to put good fuel into your body, right?”

“Yeah!” he jumped one more time and pushed past Ali towards the kitchen and then the nook table for dinner.

“Wash your hands first please!” the brunette called after him with a chuckle.

“I hope you got him his own pizza” Ashlyn said softly, clearly worn out from the exertion of the interaction with the exuberant boy.

“How you feeling babe?” Ali moved to her wife and kissed her forehead, leaving her lips there for several extra seconds to gauge if she had a fever. She pulled the germ mask down below Ashlyn’s chin so she could get a good look at her condition. “Were the kids ok? They didn’t bug you a lot, did they?”

“Nah, they were ok” the keeper relaxed under Ali’s soft touch and snuggled deeper into the couch and the blanket. “I couldn’t remember if the basement was off-limits or not, so I just said no to be safe.”

“Yeah, I didn’t get that sterilized yet” she sighed.

“It’s a big house. There are lots of other places for them to be.”

“Sexy and smart – I knew I married you for a reason” the brunette flirted softly and kissed Ashlyn’s pale cheek. 

Gone were the days when Ali could dote on her sweet keeper and nurse her back to health with all the care she really wanted to. There just wasn’t time. Now, the best she could do was try to get the kids to all the places they needed to be and make sure Ashlyn had whatever remedies and medicines she needed nearby. Being sick as a parent was a lonely, guilt-filled existence. Your spouse had to do double duty in your absence and, if you were all smart, everybody avoided you until you were no longer contagious. 

“Quit teasing me woman” Ashlyn managed a weak but honest smile and closed her eyes. “Go eat your damned pizza. It smells really good.”

“The fact that you even think that is a great sign” Ali gave her one last kiss before straightening back up. “Here’s hoping you’ve got the same 24-hour thing and it hasn’t morphed into some longer flu bug” she let Ashlyn’s hand go and tucked it under the blanket for her. “I’ll bring you more Gatorade, ok?”

“Yes, please.”

“That kid of ours is pretty freaking cute, huh?” Ali paused in the doorway, hoping Ashlyn had been just as moved by Dodge as she herself had been in the minivan on the way home.

Ashlyn opened her bleary eyes and gazed up at her grinning wife.

“So freaking cute” she spoke slowly but managed one of the biggest smiles Ali had seen from her all day long. “The freaking cutest.”

//

In the evenings after dinner it was time for the kids who hadn’t done their homework or practiced their instruments yet to get those things done. Starting next week Josie and Ashlyn would be at youth basketball practice from 6-7pm on Thursdays. And Drew would normally have been at high school JV basketball practice from 3-5pm if he wasn’t home sick this Thursday. As it was, Dodge and Lily both sat at the dining room table that evening completing their homework. Drew didn’t have any because he had been home sick for two days, and Josie had already finished hers. The redhead was in her room practicing her flute and her big brother was down in the freshly sterilized basement playing more video games with his friends online.

“I know you like Katie” Lily giggled as she teased her twin brother. 

They sat side by side at the big table, talking quietly so their mom wouldn’t come in and monitor them more closely. It was almost 7pm and that was dessert time and that meant homework needed to be finished.

“I do not” Dodge shot her a glare of objection and shook his head dismissively.

“Yes you do” she giggled again, amused by the pink blush that was coloring his cheek now. “You’re gonna make her your giiiiirl-friend next year, aren’t you?” she teased some more.

Lily started to sing the ‘Dodge and Katie, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g” song’, loving the way her brother squirmed and huffed in his seat until he couldn’t take it any longer.

“Yeah, well...you like Devin and I’m gonna tell him tomorrow. So there!”

Lily sucked in a shocked breath and immediately stopped singing. She narrowed her eyes at Dodge’s sneering face. Her voice dropped as low and serious as possible. “You wouldn’t dare...”

“Yeah I would” he laughed and rapidly flicked his pencil back and forth in his right hand before flicking his sister’s hand with it, hard.

“Ow! Dodgie don’t you dare tell him” Lily started to get upset at the idea and swatted her brother sharply with that same hand. “Don’t you dare!”

“Don’t even think about it young man” Ali challenged as she entered the room from the family room. 

Dodge’s eyes flashed with anger as he prepared to strike back. 

“But she...”

“I don’t wanna hear it” Ali put her hand up and shook her head as she moved to stand behind them, Dodge on her left and Lily on her right. “I’m sure you deserved it, didn’t you?”

“Yes he did” Lily folded her arms across her chest defiantly, happy to have the reinforcement.

“And I know you’re just as much to blame” the brunette raised an eyebrow at her daughter. “So zip it.”

The dynamic had changed between the twins over the years. Long gone were the days when Lily would be so manipulative and then lie about what had actually happened between them. Just as Dr. Mattie Olsen had suggested, Lily’s earliest years were not very indicative of what her real personality was. The concept that she had come out of the womb fighting for her own space and existence after sharing her entire world with her twin brother for nearly 9 months, had rocked Ali and Ashlyn at the time. But it had been shockingly accurate. The longer Lily existed on her own and got used to having more room and freedom and distance from Dodge, the less sneaky and sometimes mean she would be. 

There had been four stages of the twins’ relationship - as far as it pertained to parenting their squabbles was concerned anyway. In chronological order, the first was when Ali and Ashlyn blamed Dodge for everything because Lily lied about it, even in her just-learned vocabulary. Next they swung all the way back, almost reflexively, and believed everything Dodge said about their arguments and disagreements because they felt like they couldn’t trust a word Lily said. Third, the moms finally got to a point of equilibrium where they honestly believed most of what both kids told them in the heat of the moment. Lily had evolved out of that obnoxious lying stage and the parents had no reason to side with one twin over the other anymore. The bulk of the past 7 years had been in that stage. Now that the twins were 10-1/2, Ali and Ashlyn had moved into the fourth stage of managing their disturbances. 

Lily had become much sweeter and more easy-going over the years, so much so that she was now their easiest kid, in most situations. Nobody would have believed that was possible back in the day, but here they were. Dodge had always been a good kid but he had also always been the one of the four who started things up. Sometimes it was because he was upset with one of his siblings. Sometimes it was because he was exacting revenge for some previous insult or injury. But most of the time it was because he was bored or just too full of energy to sit still. Ashlyn had been convinced he had ADHD or some other kind of concentration issue. They had tested Dodge years ago and he had no discernible conditions or diseases or issues whatsoever. His brain worked perfectly. Tammye in particular had enjoyed the perplexed look on Ashlyn’s face when they discussed the results. The grandmother beamed as she told Ali and Ashlyn that Dodge was exactly like both Chris and Ashlyn had been as children. Full of piss and vinegar. 

The two moms had altered the way they approached life with their energetic son after that. They made concerted efforts to help give him time and space and activities to get his ya-yas out every day. When they were being silly together they joked that it was like taking a puppy out to run around so they would sleep quietly through the night. Dodge was very smart and performed extremely well in all his subjects at school so it was obvious there was nothing misfiring in his brain. He just was hyperactive. Just like Chris and Ashlyn had both been as kids.

The fourth stage of handling the twins was all about reining Dodge in. That evening, for example, he was finished with his math homework and it had been really easy for him. Lily struggled with it and took longer, a lot longer. The sweet part about Dodge was that he chose to sit there with her instead of leaving the room. The annoying part about Dodge was that he could only do that for a minute or two before starting to pester her in one way or another. The fix, both Ali and Ashlyn knew, was to get them to do their homework separately whenever possible. But Dodge had been at his music lesson that afternoon and Lily, taking full advantage of her sick Mama, had chosen to play on her tablet instead. The moms knew their kids. They knew that even if Lily had started it, she hadn’t done anything that would warrant whatever Dodge was about to give back to her. That’s why Ali didn’t need to hear the evidence when she came into the room. She saw the look on her son’s face and knew Lily was about to get walloped harder than she deserved. 

Dodge didn’t mean to be a jerk. He wasn’t trying to cause his sister real pain. But he didn’t always know his own strength - still, at age 10-1/2. Ali and Ashlyn had been working on it with him his whole life and he did learn how to lessen his blows. He learned to be gentle with his siblings as well as the dogs in the house. The problem was, as he got bigger and stronger, he had to keep re-learning it. It was something that required almost constant calibration. His moms could see the slight confusion cross his face every 3 or 4 months or so when they would remind him that he was hitting too hard. A little light would go on in his head and a reboot would kick in. Everything would be fine for a while until they had to remind him again in another few months. 

“It’s time for dessert” Ali’s voice lightened as she leaned down to look at the word problems on the math worksheets in front of each child. “Did you get them all done?”

“Yep” Dodge tossed his pencil onto the table and pushed the worksheet away from him triumphantly.

“Almost done...” Lily sighed and leaned her head on her hand, elbow on the table.

Ali shook her head but grinned at the boy’s antics, while she put an encouraging hand on Lily’s shoulder.

“Ok big shot” Ali poked Dodge in the ribs. “Go tell your brother and sister that it’s time for dessert. We can finish the movie tonight if you guys want.”

“Yesss!” he pumped his fist, gave Ali a quick, rough hug as he got to his feet, and then ran towards the front stairs to get Josie first.

Ali took his seat and helped Lily get hers finished. 

The four kids and their Mom all watched the rest of the family movie they had started last night and ate ice cream in the family room while Ashlyn and Logan stayed in the quarantined front living room. Frankie trotted back and forth between the two spaces, unhappy about the split situation. Meg came home about 30 minutes into it and joined them, squeezing into the normal-sized couch that was already packed with Kriegers. She let both Dodge and Josie snuggle onto her and grinned at Ali who had Lily nestled into her side already. Drew rolled his eyes but Meg and Ali both knew that if he thought he could get away with it he would have snuggled with them too. Instead, he sat at the end of the couch by the window, pressed into the arm and leaning away from his family in his existential quest for space. But that was how it was with teenagers sometimes. They rolled their eyes at you and made a fuss about how crowded the couch was, but they stayed anyway. They participated even though they whined and moaned about it. It was a perfect illustration of the push and pull teenagers felt every day of their fast-changing lives.

The kids were all settled down and looking sleepy, except for Lily the night owl. Drew was tired from his recent bout with the flu. Josie was tired from the extra piano practice she had put in that afternoon. And Dodge was tired from being Dodge all day long. He was still the first of the kids to start to shut down at night. When the movie ended it was 8:10pm and time for Lily and Drew to take their showers and then for Lily to get into bed. Ali went upstairs with them mostly to get the blonde moving. Josie stayed on the couch with Meg and Dodge, watching one of her tween girl shows on the tv. Both she and Dodge were still under one of Meg’s arms and perfectly content.

“Hey!” Dodge popped his head up, shifting slightly away from his biggest sister so he could look excitedly at her smiling face. He looked half asleep and all disheveled, but wildly awake at the same time. “Guess what?!”

“What?” Meg chuckled as she tried to pat down his unruly hair.

“Shhhh...” Josie shushed them.

“Oops” Meg made an eek face and then spoke much more quietly. “What?” she leaned her head towards Dodge in anticipation.

“I got to play rotos today” he kept his voice softer too and beamed.

“Awesome dude” Meg offered him a fistbump but kept things as calm as she could. She had learned some of the jedi parenting tricks involved in getting children to go to bed too.

“It was so cool” Dodge bumped her fist, then they wiggled their fists together, then they exploded their fists in unison. 

“Oh, I almost forgot” Meg fished her phone out of the pocket of her joggers. “You’re gonna love this video...” she flipped through a few screens and then turned her phone sideways.

“I wanna see” Josie paused her show and shifted her head on Meg’s lap so she could watch with them.

Meg held her long arm out in front of her so all three of them could see and smiled at the way both kids seemed mesmerized by the video. It was 4 minutes long and showed a 10-year old girl sitting behind a completely tricked out drum kit, crushing an old Rush song that would have made Neil Peart proud.

“Wow, she’s really good” Dodge’s eyes were wide when it was over.

“She was awesome” Josie reacted the same way.

“She reminded me of both of you guys, actually” Meg explained with a warm smile. “You guys are awesome too.”

They were all quiet for a minute, awestruck by the girl in the video and enjoying the cozy moment on the couch.

“I wanna watch it again” Dodge finally said what Josie was thinking too.

Meanwhile upstairs, Ali changed Drew’s sheets for him, still trying to de-germ as much of the house as possible to avoid relapses of any kind. She tried to remove the old sheets as quickly as possible and without any inspection or very much touching. It was gross and she hated to even think about her hormonal, pubescent son, still in his own shower, and what she might encounter during the process. As she dropped the dirty sheets into the laundry basket at her feet, she heard a scream from the girls’ bathroom.

“Ahhhhhhh!! Spider!!!!!” Lily shrieked.

The brunette hustled into the hallway from Drew’s room and down to the terror-filled bathroom. She walked in through the open door, the younger kids never bothered to shut the door, and grabbed a couple of tissues.

“Spider!!! There’s a spider!!!” came another full-throttle scream.

“I’m right here Lil, it’s ok. Relax” Ali tried to sound calm but her own heart was in her throat because that last scream had surprised the shit out of her. “Where is it?” she asked as she looked to the ceiling above the shower.

“Right there!” Lily gasped out as she opened the shower curtain, spilling water everywhere.

Ali reached up and directed the shower head against the tile wall.

“Come on, you’re getting water all over the floor out here” she chastised and sighed to herself.

“Get it Mommy! Get it!” Lily pleaded as she cowered underneath the shower head, back pressed up against the faucets and controls.

“I don’t see it” Ali squinted as her glasses started to get fogged up. “Oh great” she groaned at the new development. “Where is it? Point to it honey.”

“There!” Lily raised her arm towards the far corner where a pretty big spider was nestled just below the top line of tiles. Its darkness was easy to see against the white grout. “Ahhhh!!!” Lily screamed again. “It’s moving!!”

The spider was indeed moving and Ali grimaced as she pulled the shower curtain back into place and moved to the other end of the shower. She quickly pulled the curtain away at that end, afraid she would lose sight of the invader again, and spotted it halfway down the wall now.

“Mommmm-meeeeeee” Lily howled. She was starting to panic at the idea of the spider getting into the tub area and somehow floating down and coming into contact with her. “Please...” she begged, as the shampoo from her soapy head dripped down the side of her face.

As the brunette got ready to make her move, preparing herself and steeling her nerves, she couldn’t help but think about how unlucky she had been to fall in love with someone who was so afraid of spiders and anything creepy crawly. She chuckled to herself at the thought, knowing it was a compromise she would gladly live with, and shook her head as she thrust her arm out and squished the spider with the tissues. She felt it pop under her finger and forced herself not to gag as she pinched her thumb and forefinger together and squeezed the dead arachnid once more for good measure.

“Got it!” she announced, wiping any leftover spider guts away with the balled-up tissue before closing the shower curtain again. “You’re all set baby girl” the relief was clear in her voice. “I got it.”

With that crisis averted, Ali went back to putting clean sheets on Drew’s bed. Her mind wandered back to the spider-killing topic again. She didn’t like spiders any more than the next person did. She hated having to deal with them as a matter of fact, but somebody had to do it. The only other person in the house who was capable of doing it was Dodge. The problem with Dodge doing it was that he would often taunt you with it afterwards, especially if you were one of his sisters. There was no way of knowing what he would do until he did it. You were truly at his mercy when it came to finding a spider in the shower with you. He might kill it and get on with whatever he had been doing when you screamed. He might kill it and torture you by shoving it in your face or threatening to throw it at you. Or, very occasionally, he would try to trap it so he could release it outside.

That was the softhearted boy that everybody loved. Both twins had big, tender hearts like their Mama did. Lily’s was reserved mostly for animals but sometimes extended to one of her favorite people. Dodge’s heart was as wide-open and all-encompassing as Ashlyn’s had ever been and it worried both his mothers. Moving through this world with a big tender heart was painful as fucking hell and Ashlyn knew it firsthand. Ali had watched the woman she loved get hurt time and time again because she felt so much more than most people did. Ashlyn was empathetic almost to a fault, and she had paid the price for it over the years. As parents, they didn’t want their boy to have to endure that kind of pain too. But, Ali was always quick to remind her wife when this topic came up for discussion, Dodge and his incredible heart were going to make some lucky person unfathomably happy someday. And then he would take that awesome heart of his and be the best father ever, and uncle and grandfather...

Ali felt her own heart swell at the idea, and then ache over the thought that she would probably never see him become a grandfather. She leaned against the washing machine downstairs in the mudroom after starting the load and tried to settle her racing thoughts of probable heartaches her son would have to struggle through in his lifetime. It was 8:35pm and she needed to get the kids into bed. It had been a long, exhausting day for her and she was looking forward to going to sleep soon herself – well, she could hope anyway.

“Hi baby” Ashlyn’s soft voice interrupted her thoughts as the keeper walked unsteadily into the mudroom from the bathroom by the basement stairs.

“Did you just throw up again?” Ali asked, terror on her face.

Nobody had thrown up this far into their sick day thus far this week. Nobody, not even Josie.

“Nah, just had to pee” she gave her wife a weak smile. “Think I’m gonna try some soup...”

“Lemme get it for you” the thought of having to sterilize the kitchen after Ashlyn used it to make herself some soup was too much for the brunette to bear. “Can I get the kids into bed first? Or do you want it right now?”

“Nah, I can wait” she changed course and moved slowly into the front living room again. “I’m sorry honey...”

“Ash...” Ali stepped behind her wife in the doorway to the front living room and wrapped her arms around her stomach. She was very gentle there but pressed her whole front into Ashlyn’s back. She missed her keeper. “You know better...”

She did know better. They had a deal and it had served them well so far in their life together as parents. If one of them was sick enough to be officially home sick, then the other one tried to contain the germs so the illness wouldn’t sweep through the house. They had found that when the kids got sick, the parents sometimes got sick. But if the parents got sick, the kids almost always caught it, sometimes even worse than their mothers had had it. Even though the deal was in place and had been effective over the years, the sick mom always felt guilty as hell as they watched the healthy mom try to do everything. 

“I know, it’s just so hard seeing you running around all damned day like this” Ashlyn said quietly, as she enjoyed the most human contact she’d felt all day long.

“Well you want soup so that means you’re feeling better” Ali offered optimistically, even though her voice sounded as tired as she felt. “Which means I won’t have to be doing this for much longer. So just keep getting better, ok?”

“Ok baby” Ashlyn squeezed her wife’s arms in front of her.

“Mama?” Dodge asked quietly from the mudroom, behind his two moms.

Ali turned halfway around and welcomed him into their unconventional hug. They both knew it was time for bed and he had come for his goodnight hug from his sick mother. He was that kid. Sometimes one of the other kids would do the same thing but nobody was consistent about it except Dodge.

“Ready for bed honey?” the brunette smiled at him as he worked his own arms around Ashlyn’s waist.

“Yeah” he nodded and looked up at the side of Ashlyn’s head as she turned to try and see him too. She reached one arm back and hugged him as best she could. “Are you still sick Mama?”

“MmmmHmm, but I’m feeling a little better now” she answered his question. “You feeling ok? You’re not sick again are you?”

“Nope” he shook his head and paused for a few seconds as his tired brain glitched a little bit. “Did you know that I played the rotos today?”

Both his moms smiled but he didn’t see either of them because another yawn hit him at that precise moment.

“I did know that” the keeper replied softly, giving his back a squeeze behind her. “You told me right after your lesson” she reminded him gently. “So cool big boy, so so cool.”

“Yeah, it was pretty cool” he rubbed his eyes with one hand and looked like he was 5 years old again.

“Let’s go up bud” Ali ruffled his hair and then put her arm around his shoulders. “We’re all tired.”

“Ummkay” he nodded. “Love you Mama” he gave Ashlyn’s butt a loving pat as they all let go of the hug.

The keeper knew very well that if she hadn’t been sick that pat would have been a hell of a lot harder, probably much too hard. Ashlyn’s heart, sick and tired and hungry though she was, pounded in her chest at the sweet demonstration of love from her son. 

“I love you too honey” the keeper’s voice cracked a little bit from the upswell of emotions. “Thanks for coming to say goodnight. You’re a good boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And how good did Ali look playing Center Back??? I saw the halftime stats and she had the highest completed passing percentage on the whole team, and the most passes too I think. She was at 93% which is incredible. She started a lot of the plays out of the back and made sharp, crisp passes into the midfield. She launched some really nice long balls too. Then when she moved to Right Back towards the end of the match she was still flying up the flank, getting end line and crossing beautiful balls in too. Nobody ever gets on the end of hers for some reason though. It's so annoying. lol. Oh, and of course, she hauled ass back a couple of times, the fastest member of the entire defense, to stop one of Panama's rare offensive surges. She's just so freaking good. Such a complete fucking player. I'll never understand how people say she's too old or slow or not good enough. Honestly, what are they watching?? She's not perfect, but nobody is. I still think she's the best defender on the team. Becky is a close second and Crystal Dunn has moved into third for me. She's been great on defense the past two games. Anyway, I could go on forever....but I won't. I just don't see how Vlatko can leave Ali off the Olympic roster. I really don't. I hope she makes it. She deserves an Olympic medal more than anybody else I can think of. Here's hoping.


	5. Lily

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't get this posted last night. I was basking in the awesomeness of one Mrs. Ali Krieger. She played so freaking great last night!!! You all can vouch for me - I've been saying I wanted to see her at CB for the USWNT for about 3 years now. Thank you very much. Her short passing game has always been great and the world is finally being reminded of that. Thank you Vlatko and thank you Ali for never giving up or believing the naysayers. She fucking CRUSHED last night.  
> Ok. I'm travelling for work this week so the next chapter will be posted Friday. It's the one with the smut in it.  
> Have a great few days my friends!

Friday morning started slowly for Lily Krieger, as most of her mornings did. She had a hard time falling asleep at bedtime so she also had a hard time waking up on time in the morning. Her parents had tried everything they could think of to make it easier for their youngest daughter at bedtime, but nothing had ever worked. Lily’s metabolism just didn’t work like everybody else’s in her family. She experienced a boost of energy right around 8pm that made it nearly impossible to fall asleep in the next hour or so. Consequentially, she ended up spending about an hour playing quietly in her room or reading a book before finally feeling sleepy enough to close her eyes. One of the worst things about the situation was that her moms wouldn’t let her have her tablet before bedtime like her siblings. Dr. Comello, the trusted family physician, had urged Ali and Ashlyn to limit any after dinner screen time for Lily. There had been multiple studies done and the results all said the same thing – if you stare at a phone or a tablet while you were in bed and trying to fall asleep you were going to have a much harder time doing just that. At least it was that way for most people. As it was, one of the moms went upstairs at 9pm sharp every night to collect all the electronic devices from their children for that very reason. That made Lily feel a little better. She was only missing out on 30 minutes of tablet time and that wasn’t so bad.

“Come on Sweet Pea, time to get up” Ashlyn’s rough and hollow sounding voice reached the blonde girl’s ears that Friday morning at 7am. The keeper was feeling better, but was a shell of her usual self after being so sick the day before. “Let’s go honey” she sat on the edge of the bed and gently shook Lily’s hip.

“Ah!” Lily gasped when she slowly opened her eyes and focused them on her Mama’s face. She was used to seeing it beaming down on her every morning – but not like this. “Mama, you scared me” the girl chuckled and rolled onto her side, burrowing her face deeper into the pillow.

“I’m sorry sweetheart” Ashlyn smiled but Lily couldn’t see it because the keeper was wearing a fresh germ mask over her nose and mouth. “I’m feeling better but I don’t wanna take a chance on getting any of you guys sick again” she patted the girl’s hip twice and then gave her a soft squeeze there through the blankets. “And Mom has to go to work today so we need to make sure we’re up and ready to go.”

Ali had stayed home from work both Wednesday and Thursday that week to take care of sick kids and a sick wife, but she had to go in to the office for a late-morning meeting on Friday. It was something that couldn’t be missed. If Ashlyn hadn’t been feeling better, they would have had to enlist some kind of grandparent assistance. But the keeper had slept through the night after eating and keeping down the soup last night and was truly feeling better that Friday morning. Ashlyn just felt empty. She would stay home and be gentle with herself – making sure to feed and nourish herself while not doing anything too taxing either mentally or physically. Then she would pick the twins up from school as usual and try to stick to that easy-going plan for as long as possible. By the grace of God, nobody else had gotten sick yet that Friday. The only people left who hadn’t had the horrible stomach flu that week were Meg and Ali so chances were good that the plague was indeed ending with Ashlyn’s final hurrah. Ali hardly ever got sick and Meg hadn’t been around the house as much so she would probably escape it too. The two moms had purposefully decided that morning not to even talk about it – they were afraid of jinxing themselves.

“Oh this week is soooooo long” Lily whined through a stretch, giggling when Ashlyn pulled the covers down to expose her cute pink unicorn pajamas. 

The girl was 10-1/2 years old and growing up in so many ways, but when it came to bedtime she was all little girl. That meant cute girlie pjs, tons of stuffed animals, and the sweet, innocent demeanor that went with them.

“Are you kidding me?” Ashlyn teased and tickled her softly – nobody wanted to be tickled for real when they were just waking up. “You’ve only gone to school one day so far this week. You and Drew are making out like bandits this week, a holiday on Monday and then two sick days in a 4-day week. I swear” she shook her head, her voice still not sounding quite normal, but her eyes finally looking alive again.

“We all got sick” she giggled back, trying to keep her Mama’s big strong hand at bay. “Not just me and Drew.”

“Yeah, but Josie and Dodger were sick on the weekend and Monday” she did a quick recap in her head as she thought about it. “Poor Jojo hasn’t missed a day of school all week!”

“Yeah, well that’s good cuz she loves school so much” Lily spoke the truth and made them both laugh as the tickling turned into a warm hug.

Ashlyn pulled back sooner than she wanted to, still afraid of lingering germs.

“You’re right about that” the keeper stood up and stretched her back out. “But you’re still getting up and dressed and going to school today so move it” she quirked her eyebrow at the girl who giggled back.

“That looks funny with your mask on” she laughed when Ashlyn repeated the action again. “Oh Mama. You’re silly.”

//

Leaving the house was not easy that morning, despite Ashlyn’s best efforts to help move things along. It was Friday and Dodge almost forgot his builder outfit for his school project. Ashlyn ran out of the mudroom door waving it above her head to try and get her wife’s attention as she started to back down the driveway.

“Mama’s waving at you” Lily told the brunette.

“That’s nice” Ali replied as she was turned around facing the back of the minivan. No matter how many years had gone by with rear-mounted back-up cameras in every vehicle, she had learned to drive in reverse by turning around and looking behind her. She, and almost everybody else her age, would probably never be able to fully abandon the healthy and smart driving habit. “Wave back to her for me” she instructed without skipping a beat.

“No” Lily laughed. “She’s like...waving at you. And running.”

“Oh man, I forgot my builder hat and vest!” Dodge yelped and groaned when he saw what exactly Ashlyn was waving. “Stop mom, stop!”

Lily and Dodge were in the same grade together as they had been all their lives. But that year, for the first time, they were in different classes at East Gloucester Elementary School. Their age group continued to have more students than some of the other age groups did – which made sense because most students didn’t change schools very often. Josie’s age group had only ever been one class, as had Drew’s – although his had been very close to splitting into two. And up to that point, the twins had chosen to remain in the same class. Ali and Ashlyn knew there were pros and cons to both options and had allowed their kids to make their own decision each year. They had hoped that they might choose to separate on their own, but when they didn’t, the moms stepped in to strongly encourage them to do so in their final year at EGE. Ali and Ashlyn felt very strongly that the twins should have at least one year of schooling on their own before moving into middle school where everything got more challenging for students in almost every way – academically and socially.

It had gone well so far that year. The first half of the year had been an adjustment and the moms loved seeing the twins seek each other out more at home in the afternoons to connect and compare notes about their days in their own unique way. They saw each other often throughout the day at school but they weren’t sitting in the same classroom anymore. It was a good and healthy change for them and, once they got used to it, they both blossomed in their newfound singular spaces. They still often had the same homework because they were following the same curriculum and schedule, but sometimes their teachers interpreted and adapted class projects and field trips differently. 

For example, Dodge had a biographical job fair class project that Friday. He and three classmates were going to play the parts of people who built buildings. That’s why he had his builder costume, complete with Ali’s old hard hat and safety vest. Lily’s teacher chose to focus on the more traditional biographical presentation of historical figures who had made an impact on their students’ lives somehow. Each teacher was getting their kids to learn about somebody else and present their findings in a unique way. They were just different ways. Ali and Ashlyn sometimes regretted their decision because it had been easier just having one class field trip to deal with, instead of two as they had that year. But, as usual, the moms were willing to do extra work, bake extra cookies, chaperone extra class trips, if it meant helping the twins learn more about their independence.

Ali had helped Dodge get his builder costume ready and the boy had learned his lines and his character, much the same way he had done for the First Thanksgiving event back in November. Both teachers had given the class assignment before the Christmas break so the students had a lot of time to work on it. And also so their parents had a lot of time and flexibility in the busy holiday season calendar to help them. Thankfully, Ashlyn and Lily had spent a good deal of time working on her project right after the family returned from spending New Year’s in Miami. What a catastrophe it would have been if they had waited until that final week when they were all sick with the plague. Whew. Instead of dressing up like their characters, Lily’s class was supposed to bring in some display items to show the other students who they were and what their life had been about.

“My name is Isabella Stewart Gardner” Lily spoke evenly as she kept her nerves in check and delivered her first line to her classmates that Friday morning. “I’m an art collector and a world traveler and an animal lover and I live in Boston, Massachusetts.”

“Wonderful Lily” her teacher, Mr. Hebert, praised her with a genuine smile on his handsome, young face. He knew that she had overcome a stutter and was especially proud of her as she stood in his classroom that morning smiling, shyly – but at least she was smiling. “And why is Isabella Stewart Gardner important to you? What is your connection to her?”

The typical answers were usually vague references to being inspired by some famous historic figure or particularly impressive and socially conscious athlete or celebrity. Lily surprised her teacher and class with her unique reasoning.

“Um, well, I’m named after her” she shrugged and grinned.

“No you’re not, your name isn’t Isabella” one of her classmates spoke up, and out of turn. He hadn’t meant any harm but Mr. Hebert corrected him nonetheless. The young male teacher made a conscious, dedicated effort to stop the boys in his class from mansplaining, even at that young age.

“Nobody asked you Carter” he got up and moved so he could look the misbehaving boy in the eye. “Nobody interrupted you when it was your turn either, did they?” he quirked his eyebrow at the boy who was now embarrassed by having been called out like that. “If you’d let her finish you’d understand what she means” he gave a warning glance to the rest of the class before returning his attention and a kind smile to the nervous blonde at the front of the class. “Please continue Lily.”

“Ok, um” she giggled nervously but then took a deep breath. She could practically hear both her mothers’, as well as Dodge’s, voices in her head telling her to take a deep breath, relax, and just say it. “My full name is Lilian, that’s after my great-grandma” she added quickly as an aside, “Isabella Krieger. The Isabella is after, well” she shrugged again, “Isabella Stewart Gardner.”

There were murmurs of understanding and acceptance in the classroom. That was kind of unique. Nobody else in the class so far had done their project on somebody famous whom they were named after.

“You see, my mom loves the museum so much” – she stopped, realizing she was getting ahead of herself – “well ok, so Isabella makes a whole museum, and I’ll tell you about that in a minute” she rolled her eyes and chuckled as she pointed to one of the three big poster boards that was covered with blown up photographs of the museum as well as pictures from Isabella’s own life. “My mom, she loves the museum so much – it’s, like, her favorite place in the whole world – that when I was born she named me Isabella after her. She also has a huge painting in our house that’s from the museum” she pointed to a smaller picture of ‘El Jaleo’ on the second poster board. “Anyway, she loves it a LOT” she made a silly face and everybody laughed with her.

“Wow, what a unique connection” Mr. Hebert smiled broadly. He had ok’d the project but he didn’t know what the actual connection was until right that moment. “And I’m assuming your mom has a copy of ‘El Jaleo’, right” he nodded so Lily would know to agree with him even if she didn’t quite understand what he was trying to clarify. “She doesn’t have the actual painting from the museum – that’s still in the museum, right?”

“Right!” Lily’s face lit up as she got it. “Yes. A copy of the painting. A copy.”

A girl raised her hand and waited.

“Yes, Nina?” Mr. Hebert called on her.

“Have you ever been there? To the museum? Is it far away?” Nina asked with sweet innocence.

“Yeah, it’s in Boston. I’ve been a bunch of times. It’s really cool” Lily grinned back at her friend and classmate. “There’s a huge, um,” she had to look down at the index cards she had her notes written on to use the correct words, “courtyard in the middle of it and plants grown there, even in the winter. And there are statues there too.”

Mr. Hebert, who was familiar with the museum in general and had done some research of his own for Lily’s project – as he had done for all of the subjects of all of his students that day, briefly explained how the ceiling was made of glass and allowed light into the space below. He encouraged Lily to point to the photos that showed different areas of the courtyard to help the other kids understand and he explained that it was the first building in America to have a glass covered courtyard like that. Lily regretted not having a picture of the ceiling itself. Oh well. And that was Lily’s greatest gift. She had the ability to shrug things off easier than her other siblings. Dodge came closest to her skill level but wasn’t quite as good at it as his twin sister was. Her most common reaction to things was the shrug and giggle. It was almost like a reflex for her. And depending on the type of giggle it could express embarrassment, anxiety, or just plain old fun. After two more questions about where the museum was located and what it looked like from the outside, Lily got back to the main topic of Isabella herself.

“I was named after my grandmother Isabella, and I was born in New York City on April 14th in 1840 as Isabella Stewart. Every year around my birthday, the museum still hangs my favorite nasturtium vines all through the courtyard” she turned and pointed to another photo with the vibrant orange flowers hanging down all the walls. “My family was rich and I went to school with other girls and studied art, music, and dance. We also learned French and Italian and when I was 16 my family moved to Paris, France. I went to another school in Paris with other American girls, called a finishing school, and that’s where I met one of my best friends, Julia. That was when I made my first trip to Italy too. My idea for having a house that was full of art and like a museum came from visiting a big beautiful house full of art in Milan, Italy.” She pointed at the museum again but then corrected herself and touched the big photo of the inspirational building in Milan instead. It was an easy mistake to make because the house in Milan looked like a museum.

“I moved back to New York after two years and that’s when my friend Julia invited me to visit her family in Boston. The Gardner family was even more rich than my family was, and they were...” she stumbled over the word on the index card but didn’t let it stop her for long, “...descendants of some of the most famous families in New England: Peabody, Lowell, Pickering, and Endicott. Julia had one younger sister and four older brothers, and that’s where I met my husband Jack Gardner. He was the youngest boy in the family and only three years older than me. When we got married, the newspapers said he couldn’t be Boston’s most eligible bachelor anymore.” The whole class laughed at that reference because they had all watched parts of some of the endless seasons of ‘The Bachelor’ over the years.

“Jack and I lived in a house my family gave us in Boston, not the museum though – that didn’t happen until later. I had to build that” Lily grinned at the idea. She had really fallen in love with her namesake as she researched the impressive, eccentric, and popular woman. “My husband was in the shipping business and that’s why we were so rich. He loved art as much as I did and we had a baby a few years after we got married. We named him John Lowell Gardner the third, after my husband, but we called him Jackie. He was the light of my life but when he was almost 2 years old, he died of pneu-mon-ia” she took her time and enunciated the syllables carefully, trying to get the somber part of the story out with the seriousness it deserved. Lily and her empathetic heart had been crushed to learn of Isabella’s hardships during her lifetime.

“Around the same time, when I was already heartbroken because of Jackie, my best friend and sister-in-law Julia also died. It was a hard time for me and I got depressed. Back then people didn’t know much about how our minds worked and nobody liked to talk about it. So the only thing the doctors knew to do was to tell their patients to go take a trip somewhere and hope that the change of location would help. It’s not like that today” Lily looked up from her index cards to explain something that had been lovingly taught to her for her entire life. “Now you can talk to your friends or your parents or your teachers about stuff like that” she nodded. “It’s ok to be sad too. It happens to everybody” she shrugged and smiled sweetly.

“That trip changed my life. My husband took me to Paris for a year and we visited many other places while we were there too, like Russia, Scandinavia, and my favorite – Italy. When we came back home to Boston I was ready to start living again and I was very popular in the social scene – way more than I ever was before. The newspapers called me Mrs. Jack because I was so much fun and interesting” Lily grinned. “But I think if I was alive today I would like to be called just Isabella because it’s my own name” she shrugged at the conclusion she had come to all on her own, impressing both her moms while working on her project together.

“My husband and I travelled a lot after that and I kept scrapbooks of everything. You can see most of them at my museum if you want. We went to Asia and the Far East and all across America and even to the Middle East which was not too common back then. Jack and I spent 30 years travelling around the world and coming back home to Boston to tell all our friends about it. It was amazing. Jack’s brother died during that time and we adopted his three young sons and raised them with us. Augustus, Joseph, and William. Augustus was the oldest and he was 10 years old. Of all the places we visited my absolute favorite was Venice, Italy. We stayed in a house there called the...” another peek at the index cards, “...Palazzo Barbaro and that is what I based my museum on. I wanted to move the whole thing right across the world and have it here in Boston, but instead of that I built it new.” Lily showed her classmates the original Venetian building and then some construction pictures of her museum.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot” she made her eek face and blushed a little bit. “My husband died in 1898 and I was very sad but my boys and my dogs helped me through that time. But instead of getting depressed again, I decided to make my dream come true of having my own museum right inside my own house and making it look like my favorite place in Venice. It took 5 years to build but in 1903 I moved into my new home and called it Fenway Court. I filled it with all the artwork Jack and I had collected over the years and then made it my life’s mission to buy even more art to keep filling it up.” Lily took her time and pointed to several photos and a blown-up floor plan from the actual historic blueprints for the museum.

“Excellent job Lily” Mr. Hebert beamed. It was obvious to him that the subject meant a lot to his student and that didn’t always happen. “Does anybody have any questions for Isabella?” he turned and asked the class.

“How many dogs did you have?”

“Um, well I always had at least two, I think” Lily turned to the poster board that looked more like a busy collage with two dozen different pictures that she herself liked the best and had insisted on including, even if they didn’t come up in her index cards. “Here they are” she smiled brightly at the images of Isabella with her two favorite dogs. “This is Foxy and Rowley, but I really don’t know which is which” she giggled. “I even brought them with me to the museum when it was being built. I checked on it every single day and my dogs came with me. And in this one I’m holding three little puppies, see?”

“Did you have any cats?”

“Um, I don’t think so” Lily pursed her lips as she thought about it. “Oh! This is crazy but it’s true because I read it in two different books, she...I mean, I had a pet lion that I used to walk through Boston on a leash!”

The whole class gasped and twittered at that.

“There’s no way you had a pet lion” Carter was back with a disbelieving scoff.

“Well, I did, so...” Lily replied, looking and sounding exactly like her brunette mother.

“It is true” Mr. Hebert backed her up. “Isabella was quite the character and I recommend her biography to anybody who’s still interested. It’s called ‘Mrs. Jack’ and everything that Lily has told us today is accurate. Isabella was ahead of her time in many ways” he continued. “She was wealthy and went to fancy dinner parties like everybody else in her social circle, but she was kind of a rebel too. She liked to drink beer instead of wine which was seen as scandalous at the time for a lady of her high social standing.”

“She pretty much did what she wanted” Lily added with a grin.

“What’s that picture of” Lily’s good friend Tahlia asked, leaning forward and adjusting her glasses so she could see the poster board better. “Is that a baseball bat?”

“Oh yeah” Lily laughed. “She...I loved the Red Sox. I was friends with all the players and went to all the games.”

A few more questions came and were answered before Lily could triumphantly take her seat. Everybody always asked about the famous art heist that happened at the Gardner Museum in 1990 but Lily had adopted her mother’s opinion about the incident and decided not to include it in her presentation. Ali always said that it made her angry and then sad that anybody would deprive the rest of the world of experiencing the masterpieces and other items that had been lost in the theft. Isabella had been kind enough to make Rembrandt’s self-portrait and his only seascape masterpiece accessible to everyone and some asshole decided to steal them. And for what? They could never sell them because everybody in the entire world knew they had been stolen. Those masterpieces were probably rotting away in some thief’s basement and it made the brunette furious. All of the Krieger kids had heard the impassioned tirade from Ali over the years. Lily let Mr. Hebert talk about the theft after explaining simply that it made her too sad. 

Lily’s heart raced as she sat there and listened to the next presentation. She couldn’t put the words to it yet, but the young blonde had just unlocked the key to something that would come in handy for her the rest of her life. She didn’t mind talking to people about some things. Most things, yeah – she hated getting up and talking about it. The trick was that she had to love what she was doing. If her heart was in it then it was the easiest thing in the world. Lily left school that afternoon floating on her accomplishment and a little bit in love with her namesake too.

Ali and Ashlyn had taken all the kids to the Gardner Museum numerous times over the years and they had all engaged with it in different, meaningful ways. Drew thought the general idea of making your house into a museum was kind of cool. Josie loved the art and the dramatic appeal of the building itself. She had been the kid most captivated by standing in front of ‘El Jaleo’ in the dark, exotic loggia – so much like her mother had always been. Dodge loved how big everything was. Big huge courtyard up into the sky, big marble staircases, huge window openings, long corridors and hallways. Lily’s interest was always the beautiful courtyard with the fragrant flowers and lush mosses and graceful statues. She would have preferred to sit there for the whole visit if her moms would have allowed it. They considered it too, but they were afraid she would break the rules and clamber over the stone benches and into the courtyard itself which was an extreme no-no. 

Now, after delving into the woman herself, Lily loved the museum more than she thought she could. Getting to know Isabella’s life story and parts of her quirky, bohemian personality spoke to the girl in powerful ways. Both Ali and Ashlyn had been telling their children all their lives that they could and should be just who they were. There was no reason to try and fit into some kind of mold where you shaped yourself into what somebody else thought you should look like or think like or act like. Here, for the first time in the 10-1/2 year old’s consciousness, was a woman who had done just that. Lilian Isabella Krieger felt emboldened by her middle name and the formidable woman who had inspired her parents enough to give it to her in the first place. She had asked her Mom a dozen different times why she said ‘Thank you Isabella’ every time she walked into or out of the museum. Ali had patiently answered her each time, then adding, after Lily’s frustrated sigh of misunderstanding, “someday it’ll make sense to you my love. Someday.”

The beginning of that day had just happened for the youngest Krieger. She couldn’t quite make out the answer yet but she knew she was on the right path to it. It flickered like a dim candle at the end of the path but Lily knew, somehow, that she would get there. That knowledge excited her and reassured her. 

//

“Mama, can I go to Tahlia’s house?” Lily asked her mother when Ashlyn came to pick the twins up from school Friday afternoon at 2:30pm.

“Hi T” the keeper smiled at Tahlia and then reminded Lily of her plans for the rest of the day. “No Sweetpea, you and your sister are going to the Bruins game tonight with Mom, remember?”

“Oh yeah!” Lily’s face lit up and then she chuckled. “I forgot.” She turned to her bestie and gave her a sad frown. “I forgot. But maybe tomorrow after basketball?” the new idea popped into her head and she looked up quickly to see if she had her facts correct. “Right, Mama?”

“Yes, there’s basketball tomorrow” the keeper started looking around for Dodge. “I’ll check with your mom, T. We’ll work something out, ok?” she turned back and smiled again at both girls.

“Thanks Mrs. Krieger” Tahlia smiled back shyly before hurrying off to meet her own ride home.

“Yes!” Lily clapped her hands together and then waved after her friend. “See you tomorrow Tahlia!”

“Dodge!” Ashlyn shouted and waved her arm above her head, trying to get her son’s attention in the busy hallway. “Dodge! Over here!”

Ashlyn cringed as she saw and heard Ali’s hard hat skidding across the tiled floor towards her. Dodge and his best friend Mikey were using it as a soccer ball, or maybe a football – it was hard to tell, as they made their way from their classroom to the school entrance. The loud, obnoxious scraping sound of the hard hat sliding across the floor hurt the keeper’s head and annoyed her. She still wasn’t feeling great and nothing about this school pickup was helping.

“Why would you do that?” she shot the boys a sharp glance, motioning down at the makeshift ball and shaking her head sternly. “Pick it up. Now.”

Dodge sighed heavily and slumped his shoulders as he rolled his eyes at Mikey. But then he bent over and picked the hard hat up.

“Later bro” Mikey waved to Dodge and kept moving towards the buses.

“Hi Mikey” Ashlyn spoke loudly over the din, catching the boy’s eye as he hurried along. He nodded at the keeper with a sheepish smile. Ashlyn knew he was embarrassed at being yelled at. “Bye Mikey” she waved and winked, earning a quick wave in return.

“Can we go now?” Dodge asked as he began twirling the hard hat around with his fist inside the dome of it. Before anybody could say anything else, the hard hat flew off his hand and fell to the floor with another loud clatter. “Whoops” he chuckled nervously and quickly picked it up again.

Ashlyn glared at him.

“Your mother let you borrow that today and this is how you treat it?” she challenged, eyes flashing. “Do not drop it again. Just hold it in your hands until we get to the car.”

Lily gave her brother a sympathetic look as they followed Ashlyn out of the building. She would never understand why he did what he did half the time, nor how he got away with it, but she always got a kick out of his antics. Well, most of the time – unless they were at her expense.

“Alright children, listen up” Ashlyn used the playfully formal word she often did when addressing more than two of the kids.

She spoke to all four of the youngest Kriegers who were assembled in the front living room of the big old house. It was odd to be in there after almost a full week of quarantine status, but for the first time all week – nobody had gotten sick that day. The only one sick was recovery day Ashlyn. Praise Jesus. 

“Girls, I need you both to go upstairs and get changed for the hockey game tonight. Remember to wear something really warm because...”

“Because it’s cold in there, we know” Josie finished for her, eager to get going on the fun afternoon and evening they had planned.

“Exactly. So if you don’t want to freeze your little butts off, wear your long underwear under your tights, or wear warmer pants, and turtlenecks...”

“Aww, how come they get to go and I don’t?” Dodge whined, genuinely envious. 

“Because mom and Auntie Syd are taking them for a girls’ night, that’s why” the keeper answered evenly.

“Yeah, and you’re not a girl” Lily laughed, enjoying her twin’s jealousy.

“Are you taking me to my lesson?” Drew asked cautiously. “Or did mom cancel it...you know, because I was sick.”

“Go on girls, move it” she urged Josie and Lily towards the front stairs. “Hurry up! We’re leaving at 3pm sharp!” Ashlyn turned back to the two boys. “Ok. Um...” she had to play Drew’s words back in her head so she could listen to them again and prepare her answer. What she really wanted to do was lie down and take a nap. “No, your lesson isn’t cancelled” she furrowed her brow at the teenager. “You’re not sick...”

“No, I WAS sick. So, you know, I haven’t been able to practice...”

Ashlyn made herself start counting to 10 again, trying to get her brain to function faster and better at the same time.

“Well then you’ll have lots to catch up on this weekend. Won’t you?” she quirked her eyebrow at him, clearly communicating that she wasn’t falling for whatever he was trying to pull. “Go get your trumpet and music please. Grandpa and Vivi will be here at 3:00 to pick you and Dodge up.”

“Why do I have to go?” Dodge asked, confused.

“I swear, when your mom and I are telling you guys things, like the plan for this afternoon and tonight, do you listen at all? Even for a minute? Or just, nah – you hear us talking but you just tune us right out?”

“No, I remember” Drew tried to defend himself as much as he could, but both boys knew their Mama had just called them right the fuck out. “They’re taking me to my lesson, then we’re going to dinner, then they’re taking me to my game tonight.”

“Oh yeah” Dodge’s face brightened. He loved his Grandpa and was looking forward to hanging out with him during Drew’s lesson too. “Cool!”

“Get a move on you guys” Ashlyn ushered them through the front living room. “Go get what you need. Dodge – plug your tablet in and get it charged up before they get here.”

At 3:05pm Ashlyn started to lose her patience with the youngest Krieger of them all. Drew, Dodge, Josie, Ken and Vicki were all standing with her in the mudroom, ready to leave the house as planned. The dogs had been played with, let out, let back in and everybody’s bladder was empty too. Ashlyn muttered something under her breath as she started to march into the front living room, scowl on her face.

“Let me” Vicki tugged on her arm and moved past her with a friendly smile, not waiting for an answer from the frustrated keeper. 

“It’s time to go honey” Vicki’s patient voice sounded from Lily’s open doorway. The girl was standing in front of her dresser with nothing but on the lower half of her body but wonder woman panties. “Ready?”

“Almost” she replied as she pulled another pair of pants out of the drawer. “I was gonna wear my black tights but they felt funny with my long underwear...” she explained breathlessly as she stepped one leg at a time into the new pants. “Then I remembered I had these jeans...”

“Ok, well good job but where are your socks?” Vicki was relieved to see her at least trying to hurry up.

“Umm...I don’t know” Lily replied with her patented eek face and giggle. “Downstairs maybe?”

“We need to grab a pair from here, now, so we can all leave. We’re late Lil.”

“I just had them here though” the girl zipped up her flannel-lined jeans and started looking all around her, on the floor, on her bed, on her dresser. “I need them to wear with my warm, but not too warm boots” she explained.

“What color are they?” Vicki made a tough call and decided to help find the right socks instead of suggesting a switch to a new pair of socks. She had learned the hard way – new socks often meant a different shoe selection, which was a whole other time-consuming endeavor. “Did you have them on with your tights?”

“Uhh, purple, no pink!” Lily got on her stomach and looked underneath her bed. “I took them off when I changed...”

Vicki hadn’t helped a 5th grader get dressed or find their clothes in a while, but she was a smart lady. She had seen Lily pull her tights off before and more often than not the girl ended up stripping her socks off in the same maneuver. Sure enough, as she unrolled the discarded black tights she found on Lily’s floor, disentangling them from the cast-off long underwear, Vicki found the bright pink, knee-high socks.

“Aha!”

“Yay Vivi!!” Lily grinned up at her and they quickly set about getting them right side out and back on the girl’s feet before Ashlyn lost what little was left of her patience downstairs. 

“Ok, let’s go” Vicki moved quickly towards the door once their task was complete.

“Wait!” Lily cried out, stopping her grandmother cold in her tracks.

“Lily, your mother...”

Before Vicki could finish her sentence, Lily scampered to the doorway and gave her a big hug, burying her head in the older woman’s chest and squeezing her tight. Lily’s voice was soft and sweet and she spoke in a rush, knowing they had to go and that she was pushing her luck.

“Thank you for helping me.” 

//

The Garden, technically TD Banknorth Garden – but nobody called it that, was just starting to fill up for the Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens game that night. The puck would drop at 7:05pm, still an hour away, but fans from both teams were there early to watch warm-ups. Instead of using the Knight-Harris luxury suite that night, Ali had bought four tickets for seats that were two rows from the glass, right behind the goal that Boston would shoot at in both the first and third periods. Perhaps more than any other sport she watched, Ali felt it was vital to be right there, close to the action on the ice where you could feel the boards shake as the bodies crashed into them time and time again throughout the game. There wasn’t anything more visceral as a spectator than that. No sport hit as hard, except for NFL Football, but you couldn’t get close enough to the field to actually feet it. NBA basketball was great for the same reason – you were right there courtside if you paid enough money for the tickets. But there was no full-speed checking or crashing the boards at Celtics games. No, there was nothing quite like taking in a Bruins game up close at the Garden.

If the fans hated the opposing team enough, they hurled chants and taunts in unison at them. If the refs were bad enough, they got verbally abused too. The enormous jumbotron showed video highlights of past clashes with that night’s foe, urging fans to chant at certain times, and the high-tech speaker system blasted raucous music at all the appropriate moments too. What made the experience a good one or a bad one, in Ali’s opinion anyway, was the other fans sitting around you. If they were basically good-mannered then everything would be great. If they were foul-mouthed assholes or obnoxious drunks then it would be a long night. Those were the people that made it risky to take your kids to a game. You just never knew what you were going to hear from the other seats around you. 

“Alright, look at these great seats!” Sydney enthused as their foursome made its way into the second row. “This is gonna be awesome.”

“Who are we playing again?” Josie asked, typing into her phone as she took her seat between Sydney on her left and Lily on her right. Ali took the seat on the other side of Lily.

“Why don’t you lift your head up and look on the ice” Ali teased her playfully. “They’re warming up right in front of us.”

Before Josie could comply they all jumped when a warm-up puck slammed loudly into the plexiglass right in front of them.

“Jesus!” the redhead yelped, her eyes wide.

“Get your nose out of your phone Jojo” Sydney laughed but then gave her some side-eye. “You’re not gonna be one of those girls who goes to these games and doesn’t pay attention” she shook her head seriously. “Not with me anyway.”

“Not with me either” Ali agreed and winked at her best friend.

The NHL hockey rinks were pretty safe with plexiglass on top of the boards separating the spectators from the action. To make extra sure nobody was injured by an errant flying puck, there was netting around the ends of the oval ice rink – connecting to the top of the plexiglass and extending up into the rafters high above. Nevertheless, crazy things occasionally happened and it really was best to pay attention at all times.

After a minute to recover from the shocking puck, Lily correctly identified the opposing team.

“The Canadiens! Montreal Canadiens!” she shouted and clapped her hands, grinning when she felt her mom’s hand rubbing her back affectionately.

“That’s right Lil” the brunette praised her.

The Canadiens switched to a shooting warm-up drill and pucks began flying everywhere, each one just as loud as that first one had been. Sometimes they hit the glass, sometimes they thudded into the boards below, and sometimes they clanged into the vertical steel supports between the large pieces of plexiglass. A group of Montreal fans wearing red home jerseys and white away jerseys gathered right up against the glass, standing to watch their team and blocking the Krieger party’s view. There was nobody in the first row yet so it was hard to find too much fault with them. They were excited to see their team up close and there were three boys about Lily’s age with them. Ali and Sydney exchanged an eyeroll at the blocked view and then leaned into the girls between them to talk.

“Snack run. Who’s gonna help me?” the coach asked after several minutes and Josie quickly put her hand up, nearly poking her Godmother in the eye.

“Me me me!! I wanna go!!”

“Easy Jose, you almost took her eye out” Ali laughed, loving how excited Josie always was to spend time with Auntie Syd. 

The brunette knew that Sydney had always wanted a daughter of her own, and it made her happy that her best friend had such a close relationship with both Josie and Lily. Ali knew firsthand how easy it was to talk to Sydney about anything and everything and she felt lucky that her girls had the same loyal and honest influence in their lives. When Sydney Leroux Dwyer loved you, you had support from her no matter what, forever. Once she made room for you in her heart there was no way she was letting you go. Ali loved Sydney’s kids the same way. She got it. 

“Ok, ok” Sydney laughed at the redhead and then looked at Lily who was focused on what she could still see of the ice. “You wanna come too Lilypad?”

“Uh, no thanks” the girl flashed Sydney a quick smile and went back to watching all the pucks flying towards them.

“Do you want anything honey” Ali bent closer to Lily so they could hear each other better. “Now’s the time. We’re not getting up and down once the game starts.”

Ashlyn had dropped the girls off at Sydney’s house in Lynnfield and the coach had driven them into the K-H office in Cambridge to get Ali. They drove the short distance to the Garden and parked at about 5:00pm, then had a quick dinner at Legends – the VIP restaurant inside the Garden. There was no way any of them could possibly be hungry, but Ali knew her bestie was getting them beer, at least. 

“You can have a soda if you want...” 

“Ooh, yeah” Lily’s head snapped around to meet her mother’s face right next to it. “I wanna coke!”

“Ok” Ali chuckled, forever in love with familiar hazel eyes and helpless to do anything about it. “One coke please” she spoke to Sydney.

“Pleeeease” Lily turned and beamed at Sydney, remembering her manners and making her mom proud.

“Beer for me please” Ali added to the list. “Thank you very much.”

After convincing Josie to give her phone to her mom for safekeeping, Sydney led the redhead out of their row and up the steep aisle towards the concession area that encircled the hockey rink on multiple levels. The restrooms and merchandise stores were all up that way too. 

“So how was your presentation this morning honey?” Ali finally got to ask after Josie and Sydney had dominated most of the conversation during dinner. It wasn’t a bad thing for either Ali or Lily – they both enjoyed laughing and talking along with their more outgoing counterparts. “I talked to Mama after she dropped you off and she said you did great.”

“Yeah, it was good” the blonde was able, at last, to turn and face her mom as they talked. The shooting drills were over and the pucks had stopped flying at them. “It was kinda fun actually” she shrugged and giggled.

“Aw, that’s awesome sweetheart” Ali gave her a hug and kissed her cheek, grateful that the 10-1/2 year old still welcomed such affection, even in a public place. “I’m proud of you. You worked hard on that and you crushed it today. Great job.”

“I kept forgetting to answer their questions like her though” she chuckled, remembering her performance and shaking her head. “I kept saying ‘she’ instead of ‘I’. Oh well.”

“Oh I’m sure nobody even noticed. I wish they recorded those things. I’d love to watch it.”

“Mr. Hebert wants me to put the posters on the computer and send them to him” she broke the news to Ali that she had forgotten to mention yet to Ashlyn. 

“That’s great! He must have really loved all those pictures and the diagrams of the museum too.”

“Yep. He did” she nodded. “What are they doing now?” she motioned towards the ice and the end of warmups.

“They’re stretching. Just like every sport. You’ve gotta get your muscles loose and ready and warm so you don’t pull something, right?” Ali explained something she and Ashlyn had been telling their kids about since they first learned how to talk and ask that very question.

“It looks funny with their sticks and all that puffy stuff.”

“Their pads, yeah” Ali chuckled, looking at the Canadiens players in front of them, laying and squatting and kneeling on the ice in various different stretching poses, sticks in their hands the whole time. “It does look funny.”

“Can I go to Tahlia’s tomorrow after basketball?” Lily changed the subject, remembering what she had wanted to ask her mom earlier.

“What did Mama say?”

“Um, she said she thought I could but she was gonna check with her mom” the girl replied and then laughed and pointed at another fan who had just started walking down a nearby aisle. He was dressed in a dinosaur costume and was wearing a black Bruins home jersey. “Look at that guy!” 

“Well we know he won’t be cold” Ali laughed, joining Lily’s infectious giggle. Of all her children, Lily was the easiest to laugh. “I wonder if he can even see in that thing?” They debated the possibility and laughed some more.

After a couple minutes of observing other interestingly attired fans making their way to their seats, the mother and daughter got quiet. They were both sitting back in their seats and Ali had her arm draped around the back of Lily’s seat with her hand resting lightly on the girl’s shoulder. Their eyes scanned the area, taking in all the stimulation and letting the energy and excitement of the growing crowd and the pumping music and the flashes from the jumbotron fill them up. So far there were no obnoxious fans in their vicinity and there had only been a handful of obscenities shouted at the visiting players. After a few minutes more, both teams left the ice to go back to the locker rooms and make final preparations for the opening face-off. As Ali and Lily watched the two Zamboni machines start to clean the ice, the girl spoke clearly and evenly, and surprised her mother with her words.

“I’m not gonna go to a special high school like Jojo, am I?”

“What?” the brunette was stunned by the question. She and Ashlyn hadn’t even had a chance to talk more with Josie about the subject yet that week, never mind have a conversation with the other kids about it. “What do you mean?” she asked, knowing that the kids didn’t always know as much as it appeared they did. She and Ashlyn had learned the hard way that verifying exactly what they did know was a beneficial way to start these types of conversations. “What special school?”

“I dunno” Lily shrugged, not looking at her mother. She watched the Zambonis make their circles around the rink and the speedy men who skated around pushing shovels of shaved ice around and out of their way. “She didn’t tell me. But she said she’s going to a special high school for smart kids.”

Ali took a beat to swallow her irritation at Josie who had been told not to say anything to anybody yet. The two moms had asked her that just for this very reason. The brunette squeezed Lily’s shoulder in a side hug and bent over and kissed the top of her blonde head before replying.

“I’m sorry she talked to you about it before Mama and I could. We’re going to talk about it as a family tomorrow and Josie was supposed to wait until then” she paused and studied the side of Lily’s face – the hazel eyes still focused on the ice crew. She didn’t seem upset but she didn’t quite seem herself either. She was a little less carefree than usual and looked like she was deep in thought. “But I’m glad you asked me about it. There’s no reason to be upset about it, if you are upset” Ali tilted her head and squeezed the girl again. When Lily turned to face her and gave her a small smile, Ali smiled back and knew this wasn’t too big of a deal. Thankfully. “And I don’t know what you’ll do for high school honey. We’ll have to wait and see how middle school goes first, right?”

“Yeah, but...” she bit her bottom lip before saying the difficult words, “I’m not as smart as her.”

“Listen Lil” Ali angled her body towards the girl and looked right into her eyes so she was sure Lily would see how much love and honesty and support was there for her. “You kids are all different. You’ve each got things you’re really good at and other things that you’re not so good at. All of you. Just like Mama and me too. But we’re all smart. We’re all intelligent and our brains work just fine. I don’t want you to think you’re not smart just because your sister is extra smart.”

Lily cocked her head as she listened, blinking softly as she held her mother’s loving gaze.

“We all have things we’re extra good at.”

“Like Josie’s piano” Lily offered helpfully, participating more than Ali could have hoped for. “And Dodgie’s soccer.”

“That’s right” the brunette gave her a big smile. “And Cristina’s drawing and Cash’s basketball and Mama’s talking on tv” she added a few to the list. “And sometimes you figure out what you’re good at when you’re really young, like Josie. And sometimes you don’t figure it out until you’re older, like me” she shrugged.

“How old were you? Wait, what are you good at?” Lily squinted and Ali couldn’t help but chuckle. 

It was an adorable look, but the fact that Lily didn’t know what Ali was good at was both humbling and endearing at the same time.

“My job” she giggled. “I was...” she scrunched her face up as she did the quick math, “34 years old before I figured out I was good at helping athletes, mostly women, get paid well for their jobs.”

“34?!” Lily’s eyes went wide.

“Yep” Ali grinned. “It sounds old when you’re 10, doesn’t it?”

“Wow Mom, that is old” she giggled. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m ancient. I know. Whatever” Ali rolled her eyes while her daughter giggled some more. “The point is, sometimes it takes a while to figure out what you’re extra good at. And you don’t have to feel bad if it takes you a while honey. That’s what I’m trying to say.”

“So Josie’s going to a school for piano? Or for smart kids?”

“We’re not sure where she’s going to high school yet, but it might be a school for both” she tried to keep the explanation simple. “And it’s hard to compare how smart you guys are. There are lots of different kinds of smart. The way school does it is one way and it’s very important and you guys are all doing great in school and making Mama and I very proud.”

“You can say it you know” Lily shrugged again but dropped her eyes this time. But they were back up a second later along with another small smile. “Josie’s smarter than me. Dodgie is too.”

Ali felt her heart sink. What the hell was she supposed to say now? Could a 10-1/2 year old really comprehend the subtleties she was trying to explain to her? What she wanted more than anything was to make sure Lily knew she wasn’t less than, that she was just as good even if she wasn’t quite as smart.

“Right now, halfway through this school year, yes” Ali chose her words carefully and nodded thoughtfully into Lily’s open, vulnerable, sweet face. “Josie is smarter than most kids I’ve ever known when it comes to school. But it’s not fair to compare you to her right now until you’re 2 years older too, right?”

“I guess” Lily considered the idea.

“I’m telling you” Ali winked at her and played with the long blonde hair on her shoulder.

“But what about Dodgie?”

“Oh Lil, it’s not as important as you think it is honey” Ali blew out a breath, struggling to stay the course of the conversation. “Right now, yes, maybe Dodge is smarter at math than you are. But who knows what will happen next year or the year after that? You might be smarter than him in World Cultures or at reading. You just don’t know until you’re doing it.” They looked at each other for several seconds and Ali prayed silently that she was saying the right things. “What’s important, what’s really the only thing Mama and I have ever asked of all you kids, is that you try your hardest and do your best, no matter what it is you’re doing, right?”

Lily thought for a second and bit her lip again but the reminder seemed to connect with her somehow.

“Yeah” she nodded.

“Then that’s all you have to worry about sweetheart. If you do that then everything will work out just the way it’s supposed to, and you’ll find out what your special thing is too. And then you’ll be better at that than Josie and Dodgie and Drew and even Meg.”

“Better than Meg?” Lily’s face lightened instantly. All the kids idolized their biggest sister for a million reasons.

“I promise you will be better than Meg at something someday. Maybe even a couple things” Ali chuckled and bent over to kiss her daughter’s head again. “Maybe a whole bunch of things.”

“Really?”

“Really. I promise you, my love.”

Before they could talk any more about what those things might be, Sydney and Josie were back with snacks and drinks and silly stories about someone in line in front of them at the concession counter. A moment after that the entire Garden went pitch dark and the pregame light show started with blaring music that you could feel right inside your chest and flashing lights and sirens and then a spotlight so you could watch the teams sprint onto the ice in a flurry of red and white and black and gold. Ali knew they would talk more about special schools tomorrow, when everybody was there to join in and she was glad about that because there was more she wanted to say. But for now, for that night there at the hockey rink that was bursting with energy and excitement, Ali took solace in the fact that Lily was having a wonderful time. That was enough for now.

The quixotic, complicated, but precious girl was sitting on the edge of her seat completely engaged in the game for all 60 minutes. She laughed often and clapped loudly whenever the Bruins did anything impactful, which was a lot. Lily giggled with her sister and shared fist bumps with Aunt Syd and exchanged enthusiastic high-fives with her mom. During one particularly rowdy exchange on the ice directly in front of them, a Montreal player crashed into the boards and rattled the glass as he violently body-checked the Bruins forward who was trying to center a pass in front of goal from just behind the net. It was a thunderous and completely safe and legal hit and the crowd erupted in delight. Some of the fans who were closest to the glass, as the Krieger party was, shrank back in surprise or temporary fear. Josie reacted that way, clutching Sydney’s arm and getting pale at the bone-crushing impact. But not her younger sister. Lily instinctively leaned forward, towards the contact and the excitement and the action, just like her mother next to her. It was a fearless moment in a girl who often came across as lightweight or silly or otherwise inconsequential. Sports was the one place Lily’s competitive nature ever showed, and it was nothing in comparison to her other siblings. But it was there. That explosive moment on the boards had been a glimpse, however brief, into the heart and soul of the sometimes-fickle blonde. She wasn’t as soft as she seemed. Not by a longshot. In true Lily Krieger fashion, she was a rare combination of many diametrically opposed things that night. Her delicate, fun-loving personality alternated effortlessly with her passionate, competitive, sports-loving side and resulted in the unique experience that was Lilian Isabella Krieger.


	6. Saturday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut Warning at the end of the chapter

Saturday morning came early and aggressively for the Krieger clan. Both Ali and Ashlyn were used to busy winter weekend days full of different basketball games, indoor soccer games, play rehearsals, and other social activities for their kids. The good news that January weekend was that play rehearsals hadn’t started yet. The bad news was that Josie had talked her moms into letting her participate in a 6-week gymnastics program that started that morning. Worse still was that it was Saturdays and Sundays from 8-9am. Ugh. That schedule was more painful to the two moms than the hundreds of registration dollars they had paid for it.

Saturday’s schedule:

8:00am – Josie’s gymnastics class in Big gym

9:30am – Lily’s basketball game in the Little gym

10:30am – Dodge’s basketball game in the Little gym

1:30pm – Drew and Ethan go to the mall and movies with friends

2:00pm – Josie’s basketball game in the Little gym

Youth League Basketball was still played, and practiced, at the middle school, in the Little gym and the Big gym, like always. Gymnastics had the Big gym from 8-9am and then the first basketball game was at 9:30am. Ashlyn was the head coach for all three basketball teams. 

Sunday’s schedule:  
8:00am – Josie’s gymnastics class in Big gym

10:00am – Dodge’s Indoor Soccer game

11:00am – Drew’s Indoor Soccer game

1:30pm – Lily’s Indoor Soccer game

6:00pm – Krieger – Wild Family Dinner

All of the indoor soccer games were at the Ashlyn Harris Sports Complex right in Gloucester so at least the drive was shorter now. They used to have to drive all the way up North to the New Hampshire border to get to the previous facility they used. The only drawback was that the AHSC didn’t have a trampoline play park inside it. It did have healthy food concessions and a small video game arcade and a wifi work station but the kids, even the older ones, missed the trampolines.

“Why did we have kids again?” Ali groaned from the little spoon position as her alarm went off at 7am that Saturday morning.

“Why are they so damned busy?” Ashlyn mumbled and then whined when her wife disturbed the cozy covers to reach out and turn off the alarm. “Why can’t they just sit here and entertain themselves like we did when we were their age?” 

“We didn’t just sit at home either babe” Ali yawned, rolled onto her back and stretched her legs out. Ashlyn kept a firm grip across her stomach and nuzzled her face into the brunette’s neck. “Mmmmm” Ali hummed as she tried to get her eyes to stay open after another yawn. She chuckled sleepily when she felt the keeper pull her in even tighter. But when Ashlyn attempted to throw her leg across Ali’s hips she had to protest. “Nuh uh, no way” the brunette pushed her wife’s leg down, away from her full bladder. “I’ve gotta pee.”

“Nooo...” Ashlyn moaned and then whimpered. “If you get up to pee then you won’t come back to bed.”

“Yeah, that’s how alarms work hon” Ali giggled and turned her head so she could kiss the blonde’s head.

They lay there for another minute like that, trying to make the quiet, cozy moment last as long as possible before launching themselves into their very busy day. 

“Hey, nobody got sick last night” Ali’s eyes shot open at the astounding realization. “Or yesterday!” she shook Ashlyn’s arm that was across her stomach.

“Hell yeah” the keeper mumbled into brunette locks. “Miracles really do happen” she chuckled.

“Do you know what that means?!” Ali was genuinely excited and didn’t wait for a reply before answering her own rhetorical question. “We are officially a healthy household again! Thank fucking God!”

“Praise Jesus” Ashlyn added, perking up at the great news. “Holy shit, we made it honey. We survived!”

Ali rolled over and hugged her wife, humming happily as Ashlyn ran her hands up and down her back and butt before finally kissing her good morning. She let out a low, throaty giggle because it was early and she was still tired.

“Morning beautiful” the keeper pushed some of the dark hair off of Ali’s shoulder and gently caressed her face before kissing her again.

“Mmmm...hi” Ali replied with a soft, slow, loving smile. “We survived and I love you.”

“Love you too baby.”

“And I still have to pee” Ali chuckled. “And we still have to get Josie ready for her first gymnastics class” she sighed wistfully, wanting nothing more than to stay in her keeper’s arms all morning long.

“Oh yeah” Ashlyn blinked her eyes several times, trying to get them to wake up along with the rest of her tired body. “Are you taking her or am I? I can’t remember.”

“I’m taking her. You bring the twins with you. We’ll watch Lily’s and then Dodge’s games and then all come home for lunch” Ali reminded them both of the plans they had made late the night before, after the Bruins game. 

“Right” Ashlyn nodded, happy that it all sounded familiar to her. She was actually eager to start coaching all three of her youngest kids’ teams that season. She knew the players really well and it was easier to get them to do what she needed than it used to be. “Then back for Josie’s game at 2:00pm...”

“And Drew wants to go to Ethan’s after lunch...”

“Oh yeah” the keeper sighed, momentarily overwhelmed by all the information they were exchanging. “A bunch of them are going to the movies. Sam will drop our guys off and one of us will pick them up. I remember.”

“We can figure that out later” Ali pecked her wife’s lips and started to extricate herself from the hug and the comfortable bed. “Let’s see how the day goes before we decide who’s doing that. Ok?”

“Sounds good” Ashlyn kept her hands on her wife for as long as she could, loving the warmth of her skin under her fingertips. “I’ll get the little miss up while you get in the shower” she yawned and then stretched and then yawned again.

The keeper’s eyes were closed after finishing that last yawn and she was surprised by Ali returning to the bed, however briefly, to give her one last kiss before they started their day.

“What was that for?” Ashlyn asked with a dopey, lovestruck grin on her face.

“Just because I love you” Ali shrugged as she backed quickly out of reach, her full bladder now an urgent need. But she would always love waking up with her gorgeous keeper and some mornings she just had to let her know. “And I love doing life with you. That’s all” she smiled adorably, popped her shoulder and gave Ashlyn a sweet, goofy pose before disappearing into the master bathroom with a giggle.

“Me too sugarplum” Ashlyn grinned after her. “Even at this ungodly hour of the morning on a Saturday, me too.”

//

At 10 and 11 years old, Lily and her teammates had improved significantly on the basketball court. Unlike when they had been younger, none of the girls were afraid to catch the ball anymore. There was no more sticking their arms up, closing their eyes, and hoping for the best when one of their teammates passed the ball inside, close to the basket. Most of the girls could dribble the ball to some degree as well now. There were a lot of things that were a lot better now. Instead of having just one or two standouts on the team when they were younger – those two girls who could literally run and dribble circles around everybody else who just stood there and watched, there were four or five girls on each team who were pretty good. Those two standouts were still there, but the gap between them and the next girl talent-wise had closed considerably. 

As the girls grew and got more coordinated, they became able to move to open spots on the court and follow game plans, however simplistic they were. The youth league rules said that you couldn’t play anything but zone defense and that was just fine with most parents and coaches and kids. Every once in a while there was a new coach who wanted to test the rule, but they were always corrected at the end of the first period by the youth league president or vice president, whichever person was in attendance. The Gloucester Youth Sports Association, GYSA, had been trying to get both Ashlyn and Ali to take on the role of President or Vice President for years but the two busy moms always declined. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to help or participate, but they didn’t have any extra time. That’s really all there was to it and most of the other parents and coaches realized that. 

That was pretty much the story of Ali and Ashlyn’s life as parents in Gloucester. They were always there doing what the other parents did, often times even more, but they never took any positions of power or extra responsibility, aside from coaching. That stood for sports and the artistic endeavors and interests of their kids. Maybe when Drew and Josie were older and out of the Youth leagues the two moms would make or find time to play one of those parts while the twins were still in middle school. That would mean sometime in the next 3-1/2 years. Who knew? They were both open to the possibilities but knew better than to commit to anything. Their schedules were already packed. 

Just that January for example, they were second-guessing their decision to let Josie try gymnastics for the first time. The redhead was already playing youth basketball and her second activity would be the latest school play when it started up in February. In addition to those two obligations, Josie would be practicing her butt off for her performances in three different musical groups for the District Festival at the same time. Both Ali and Ashlyn felt strongly about not letting their children quit something once they’d committed to it so they were leery of overscheduling any of the kids at any time during the year. But Josie had begged them. She pulled out all the stops and had a scheduling breakdown drawn on graph paper for them and everything.

“But it’s only 6 weeks. And it’s first thing in the morning so it won’t get in the way of basketball or the play when it starts” Josie patiently but passionately stated her case back in late November when the 6-week introductory gymnastics class had been announced at school. “And there’s only two weekends at the end where there’s overlap with play rehearsals.”

It was a very logical argument and both moms were impressed with her organization and delivery of the facts. What they didn’t understand was why, after not being even remotely interested in gymnastics for the past 8 years, their 12-1/2 year old daughter was all of a sudden hellbent on giving it a try now. They had asked a dozen different ways, trying to get to the bottom of the mystery with no luck. Finally, Ali had told her brother over the phone how frustrated she was by the situation. She explained that she and Ashlyn were leaning towards saying yes, but there was something holding them back and they realized that they could both tell that there was a piece missing to the story.

“Sis, you crack me up” Kyle had laughed into the phone that late morning in early December. He was walking to his studio in Brooklyn while his sister was sitting at her desk in the Knight-Harris offices. “You’re a great mom and you have really impressive mom-sense, but you’re totally missing this one” he laughed some more.

“What?” Ali replied in that slightly annoyed but partially self-conscious way that she often used with her older brother. Her voice was almost shy and she usually blushed at the same time. Kyle had been the very first peer that she had ever wanted to impress and that would never go away, no matter how old they both got. She would always care very deeply about what her brother thought of her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean...” he dragged it out dramatically, enjoying the moment. It wasn’t every day that he got to zing his perfect, professional, accomplished little sister. “...it’s Vero Nixon, duh.”

Ali’s mind raced as she tried to think of something that the superstar, whom Josie idolized, might have to do with gymnastics. She came up with nothing. 

“Wow, you really don’t know, huh?” Kyle giggled, enjoying the moment enormously. “Who’s an old fart now?” he challenged and laughed out loud.

Ali had been teasing her brother pretty relentlessly about being 50 years old ever since his birthday in June last year. Part of that was routinely calling him an old fart. She did it as often as possible, when the situation called for it. She was never as cutthroat about it as he could be in reversed positions and about other subjects, but she did enjoy watching him squirm about the one thing she’d always have over him – one year more of youth. 

“Just tell meeeee...” she whined.

“Not until you agree to stop calling me an old fart every chance you get” he challenged.

There was a pause on the phone while Ali considered if she had enough of a lead on the gymnastics mystery just knowing that it had something to do with Vero Nixon or not. She hated to give up something that she very rarely had to hold over her big brother’s head.

“Fine” she agreed reluctantly, and Kyle could hear the distaste in her voice.

“Yessssss!” he hissed into the phone. 

Ali could tell he was doing an annoying fist pump with flourish and she rolled her eyes and then chuckled. As hard as she tried sometimes, she just could not find her brother’s antics anything but endearing. She loved him a lot, that’s all there was to it – even if he was torturing her.

“Spill it” she instructed after letting him carry on for another full minute. “You big jerk.”

Kyle went on to explain how Vero had just released a new song about a young gymnast that was loosely based on her own experiences when she was a little girl. It was a hauntingly beautiful, stripped-down acoustic version of the song that she was going to include, in a bigger way, on her next album. It touched, obliquely, on the horrifying sexual abuse scandal that had rocked US Gymnastics 15 years earlier. Most of Vero’s younger fans were completely unaware of the scandal or its subtle reference in the song. That was part of what made Vero so good – she was an incredible storyteller with her music.

“’The Gymnast’ huh?” Ali thought out loud after listening to her brother’s take on things.

“I’m telling you” Kyle continued. “She only made it available to her fan club members, just before Thanksgiving - as a Holiday gift. That’s why you haven’t heard it yet” he surmised correctly. “But that’s why little miss thing is interested in gymnastics now.”

Kyle had, of course, been right. And the two moms agreed to let their gifted girl try gymnastics, even though her schedule was going to be full enough already without it. They knew Josie could handle it. Maybe the advanced classes she was starting to take this Spring would change all of that and they’d have to be more careful about allowing extra extracurriculars going forward. But they felt confident about allowing an extra one for 6 weeks that Winter.

Ali and Ashlyn had a good feel for what each of their children could handle. They tried to push the kids and challenge them without overloading them. It was sometimes like walking a tightrope, but so far they had managed it pretty well. They both knew it was only going to get more difficult as the kids grew more independent and developed new interests. All they could do was hope for the best and keep trying to guide the kids the only way they knew how – with abundant love and firm boundaries.

//

“So what’s going on with you and Meg?” Ali asked her wife later that night.

It was 9:30pm and she and Ashlyn were sitting on the couch in the family room with an adult beverage, rewarding themselves for hashing out the plans for Sunday morning’s kid activities. Ali agreed to take Josie to gymnastics again at 8am but mostly because her dad and Vicki wanted to be there to see what it was all about. Gymnastics was new for this generation of Kriegers and Ali knew her dad hadn’t forgotten the awful details about young female gymnasts being sexually abused all those years ago. The father and daughter didn’t have to say the words out loud – Ali knew why Ken wanted to be there. She would admit to having some of the same lingering fears herself if someone asked her point blank about it. Her mind had been put at ease after watching the Saturday morning session. 

Then they would all go to the Ashlyn Harris Soccer Complex for three indoor soccer games. Josie would stay home by herself after gymnastics so she could practice her District pieces. Drew had stayed home Saturday morning by himself too. Those weren’t the two kids that Ali and Ashlyn worried about, especially if they were by themselves or if it was just the two of them. Adding the twins to the mix was when it got dicey. There were rules for being home alone and both bigger kids knew them well. Drew had been less inclined to stay at home by himself originally, back when he had been 12. He didn’t like to admit it but it made him uncomfortable. He just didn’t like it very much. He wasn’t afraid so much as he was unable to relax. It wasn’t until Josie started staying home by herself so easily that the two moms realized their oldest boy had been less enthusiastic about it all along. But that had been two years ago. Now, 14-1/2 year old Drew could not have been happier to be home by himself, on the rare occasion that it happened.

If you were home alone you were not allowed to have anybody over. You could not use the stove or oven or any of the fireplaces. If you were hungry and needed to heat something up you could eat one of the many microwavable options available, or use the toaster. But that was it. The doors were to be kept locked and you were not supposed to answer the door unless it was immediate family – if one of the grandparents stopped by, for example. Four-family parents and next-door neighbor Julie Donaldson were also acceptable in this regard. Drew and Josie both knew where the spare house key was hidden in the backyard – under one of Ashlyn’s clay flowerpots behind the garage, near the garden. One of the first things Drew had done while staying home alone was to lock himself out of the house after going out to play with the dogs in the backyard. Hence the spare key. 

Another rule was that if you answered the house phone you weren’t supposed to say that you were home alone, no matter who it was or what they were calling for. Again, the same ‘safe’ group excepted. Some of the rules seemed over the top, even to Ashlyn who could be extremely overcautious about those things, but there was just no sense in risking it. Both Ali and Ashlyn would rather err on the side of caution than suffer consequences they couldn’t bring themselves to even think about. And the other four families all had similar rules so it wasn’t like the Krieger household was an outlier. Some of the Krieger kids’ school friends also had different guidelines, some stricter and some more relaxed. Ali and Ashlyn felt good about their system and, so far, it hadn’t failed them yet. 

That Saturday night, the keeper had just come downstairs after collecting the kids’ phones and tablets for the night, and the two tired moms were going to try to watch a movie together before going to bed. They had learned through experience that if they got into bed and tried to watch anything, Ali would fall asleep almost instantly. So they chose to stay upright and clothed so they had a fighting chance at staying awake.

“What do you mean?” Ashlyn furrowed her brow and groaned as she sat down on the couch next to her wife who had stretched her legs out onto the coffee table and begun flipping through cable stations with the remote in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. 

How that woman could make joggers and a Penn State sweatshirt look so good was one of life’s greatest mysteries and Ashlyn knew she would never understand it. She was sure that the messy bun at the back of her wife’s head only added to the allure. 

Ali studied the side of the blonde’s face, trying to decide if she was willfully playing dumb or just being obtuse. She watched as Ashlyn leaned forward and picked up her tumbler of whiskey, whiskey stones rattling softly inside the glass. The keeper had put jeans on after her post-workout shower early in the evening, which had caught the brunette’s attention right away. They were faded light blue and looser than usual and Ali could see the waistband of her wife’s boxer briefs whenever Ashlyn raised one of her arms for something. The weathered dark green Gloucester Fishermen hoodie the keeper was wearing looked cozy and inviting too. The brunette let her wife savor a sip of whiskey and then couldn’t help but smile when Ashlyn put her free hand on her left thigh and patted it affectionately. Having her keeper’s hands on her in any way had always caused that reaction from Ali and she hoped it always would. The brunette leaned to her left and pressed a warm kiss into Ashlyn’s soft cheek before continuing her line of questioning.

“I mean, why have you and Meg been avoiding each other all afternoon and evening?” Ali set the remote down in her lap and put her hand on the keeper’s right thigh, giving it a squeeze.

“We’re not avoiding each other” Ashlyn picked up the remote and moved distractedly through the pages of the onscreen channel guide.

“Um, yeah you are” Ali chuckled, knowing for sure she had discovered...something. “When she came home this afternoon she hung out until you got back from picking Drew and Ethan up after the movie. Then she went upstairs to her room” the brunette squinted at the side of her wife’s face as she laid out her evidence. “Then she went downstairs and ate with Drew so she could check in with Edgar and watch them play their game. Then you went down to work out and she came back up and played Catan with us...”

“What?” Ashlyn’s voice crept up into a higher range than usual as she tried to brush off her wife’s inquisition. “That’s ridiculous” she scoffed, forcing her voice back down to a more normal range and praying she could pull her charade off.

“Yeah? Well Meg wanted to watch ‘The 39 Steps’ with us tonight but all of a sudden changed her mind. We’ve been trying to watch that movie with her for weeks...”

Ashlyn exhaled loudly and took a big sip of whiskey, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head slowly.

“There IS something going on” Ali perked right up, setting her feet on the floor and turning her body to face her anxious wife. “What is it? What happened? When have you two even had time to get into a fight this week?” she rattled off excited and anxious questions one after the other until Ashlyn finally broke.

“Yes! Ok?” she tossed the remote onto the coffee table and the combination of that racket and the excited outburst from Ali caused both dogs to get up and come over to investigate. “Fine, you’re right. I can’t look at her right now” she buried her head in her hands, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

“Wait, you can’t look at her?” Ali struggled to make sense of it. She had assumed Ashlyn was the one being avoided by Meg who was somehow the aggrieved party in whatever conflict was going on. “What did she do?”

The keeper spent the next 15 minutes describing their incredibly awkward encounter from Wednesday at Hannah’s condo, leaving out no detail. Ali’s jaw dropped as soon as her wife started speaking and stayed that way through the entire sordid story. The brunette’s reaction ran the gamut from amused to annoyed, took a sharp turn to titillated then spun back to confused, finally resting at worried. When Ashlyn was finally finished with her tale of shock and embarrassment, they both needed a minute to settle themselves down.

“So, let me get this straight” Ali was sitting sideways on the couch with her legs curled underneath her and her left arm resting on the back of the couch, behind her keeper. “You heard them having sex but went to look for yourself anyway?” she tilted her head to the side, confusion all over her face.

“Yes, no, well...it wasn’t like that” Ashlyn’s flustered words came out slowly and painfully. 

She was still sitting as she had been but had spent the 15 minutes of story time rocking forward and leaning on her knees, then sitting back into the couch for a few seconds before rocking forward again. She kept her eyes focused straight ahead as the blush on her face got deeper and redder with every passing moment. 

“What was it like then?” 

Ali really wanted to make fun of her sensitive wife, but the keeper was so obviously upset about it that it didn’t seem fair to tease her about it. Yet.

“Oh God Al...” Ashlyn sighed loudly and rubbed her face with both hands. “I heard them but I didn’t know that’s what it was. I mean, the last thing I expected to find in there was Meg and Charlie having sex on Hannah’s desk! They were supposed to be at his parents’ house helping with...something!”

“Shhh...” Ali did chuckle that time. “Ok, so what did you think it was?”

“I don’t know” the keeper was defensive and embarrassed and uncomfortable all over again. “I thought...I don’t know, I thought maybe it was a robber or something” she threw her hands up in the air and let them drop down to her sides.

“Alright, well that kinda makes sense, I guess” Ali’s face was scrunched up as she tried to imagine herself in the same situation.

“Seriously?” Ashlyn turned an angry face to her wife. “Do you think I would have walked in there if I had known what it was? Because that’s what the other option is.”

“No” Ali shook her head quickly, seeing the point immediately. “No, you wouldn’t have done that.” 

It was true. There’s no way Ashlyn would have gone in there if that’s what she thought had been going on. The keeper loved to tease Meg about sex, but it was usually about her sex life with Ali. She loved making the redhead squirm about it and always had. But Ashlyn had no desire whatsoever to experience any part of the redhead’s sex life. No parent did.

“But I did go in there” she squeezed her eyes shut again and groaned. “And now I can’t look at her...”

“Aw, honey” Ali softened and pulled her wife into her arms. “It’s ok. It’s not that big of a deal. You’ll both get over it before you know it” she soothed, rubbing slow circles into Ashlyn’s back as the keeper wrapped her long arms around the brunette.

They were quiet for a couple of minutes before Ashlyn spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper as she put words to something that had bothered her ever since that fateful Wednesday visit to the condo.

“She looked so much like Hannah...”

Ali waited, unsure where the conversation was headed next. She wasn’t sure there was a good way for it to go from there. Did Ashlyn mean to sound wistful about Hannah’s naked body? The brunette didn’t think so. She hoped not anyway. But the keeper didn’t say anything else and Ali’s curiosity finally got the better of her.

“What does that mean?” she pulled her head back to try and look at Ashlyn’s red face but the blonde kept it buried inside the hug, right under her wife’s chin. “Ash, what do you mean?”

“Ugh...just forget I said anything...”

“Well, you know I can’t do that” Ali chuckled nervously. 

They both knew that Ali’s well-documented jealousy was at its peak whenever Hannah was involved. The brunette forced herself to stay quiet and patient, sure there was a good explanation for what her wife was trying to say. At the same time, Ashlyn’s brain whirred and spun, processing emotions that she had kept at bay since Wednesday. In her defense, she had been sick pretty much since then. The idea that what she had seen that afternoon had upset her so much that she had given herself the stomach flu, made the keeper giggle at her silly self.

“Oh, so it’s funny now?” Ali was more confused than ever and starting to lose patience.

The slight edge in Ali’s voice was like a welcome shock to Ashlyn’s addled brain and all of the pieces fell into place for the keeper in one fell swoop. Her eyes went wide when she realized what the brunette might be thinking.

“Oh shit” Ashlyn sat up, color slowly draining from her face as she saw the confusion and concern in her favorite tiger eyes. “No, I don’t mean it like that. Ewww...” she shook her head, agitated by the thought of interchanging Meg and Hannah’s naked bodies and what that meant. “Oh God, gross...”

“Ash, what is going on?” Ali took both her wife’s hands and squeezed them, waiting for frantic hazel eyes to settle back on hers. “Why are you talking about Hannah now?”

“Nothing, baby, it just popped into my head when I saw Meg. Like...some kind of muscle memory for my brain or something. And then just now when I was flashing back to it, I thought of it again. I mean, they look a lot alike, especially now that Meg’s...”

“All grown up?” Ali had relaxed significantly, sure by the awkward but sweet explanation that Ashlyn had simply been making an observation. And an observation that had clearly upset her now that she was trying to process it.

“Yeah” the keeper swallowed hard and met her wife’s amused gaze. “I laughed just now because...”

“Because why?” Ali leaned in and gave her cheek a soft kiss of encouragement.

“Because I was thinking that walking in on Meg like that and having that split second where her body looked like Hannah’s to me – except for her boobs, Hannah’s are a lot bigger...”

Ali chose to let that comment go.

“...that’s what made me sick this week” Ashlyn laughed, relieved that Ali wasn’t upset with her. “It was so traumatic – switching their bodies for just a second – that I was physically ill from it” she shook her head and laughed again. “Isn’t that hysterical?”

“It is pretty funny” Ali had to admit with a chuckle. “And gross too” she made an eek face and watched a shiver run through her wife’s body.

“Yuck” Ashlyn closed her eyes to ward off any further thought or conversation about her ex.

A moment of relieved quiet enveloped them and Ashlyn tucked herself back into Ali’s embrace.

“Wow, so that was horrifying babe. I’m sorry” the brunette kissed the top of Ashlyn’s head and held her close. “On the plus side, it’s nice to know Charlie’s taking good care of things” she giggled, softly at first because she wasn’t sure her wife was ready to joke about it or not.

“Oh yeah, I can vouch for that” Ashlyn groaned but then laughed. “He was so into it he didn’t even hear me at first!”

“Atta boy” Ali laughed too, throwing her head back and slapping her thigh with her free hand. “I knew I liked him for a reason.”

They laughed together for another minute or so.

“So is this your thing, or what?” Ali quirked a playful eyebrow at her keeper as Ashlyn sat up again and pulled Ali’s legs onto her lap. “Ooh, that feels good” the brunette sighed as she straightened her legs out and stretched them beneath her wife’s big hands.

“Is what my thing?”

“Walking in on people having sex?” Ali chuckled. “I mean, you really gotta learn to knock babe.”

“Oh my God, what if this is my thing?” Ashlyn’s eyes went wide again. “I’ve walked in on Whitney in college, Niki in Germany, you” she rolled her eyes at Ali who was giggling along with her. “And now Meg. Holy shit. What is wrong with me?”

“Well, knocking is really gonna help you here honey” Ali teased. “We can do some remedial training if you want...”

“Oh very funny” Ashlyn tickled one of Ali’s feet and made her squeal and try to pull them away but the keeper held tightly to them. “Not so funny now, is it?” she challenged the brunette.

They playfully poked and tickled each other for several minutes before settling into a long, slow kiss that put everything back on an even keel. Everything felt better, no matter what crazy situation had just popped up or been resolved, with one of those kisses. It felt so much better that they shared another one, Ashlyn pulling Ali in closer to her lap by the brunette’s hips.

“So, no movie then?” Ali chuckled as they gazed longingly into each other’s eyes.

“Maybe not tonight” Ashlyn wagged her eyebrows and they both laughed softly before kissing for another few minutes.

“Hey, I meant to ask you, why was my old work polo up here on the washing machine?” 

Ali’s brain had started to go through the checklist of things that had to be done before she could relax and entertain the idea of going to bed with her sexy wife. That one question that she had been trying to ask Ashlyn about all day popped up before she could edit herself.

“Wow, I see. I give you the eyes and you bring up laundry” Ashlyn laughed. “That’s hot, Krieger” she teased and laughed some more.

“Ugh, sorry” Ali blushed a little but laughed along with her wife. “You know how it is...”

“I do” the keeper gave Ali’s lips a quick kiss and then another, smiling into both of them. “Running down the list for the night. I’ll take care of the dogs and lock up...”

“So why was it up here, my old shirt?”

“Oh, ummm...” Ashlyn stammered a bit as they both got up to get the house ready for bed so they could go upstairs and enjoy sexy times before it got too late or they got too tired. “No reason...”

“Babe, you are the worst liar” Ali giggled and poked her wife in the ribs as they brought their now empty glasses to the kitchen sink together. “Were you thinking Dodge needed it for his outfit yesterday or something?”

“Well, kind of” Ashlyn blushed just a bit and hoped it wouldn’t be too obvious in the semi-dark kitchen. “I saw it when I went down to get the high vis vest” she shrugged.

“Ok, and...?” Ali didn’t understand why her wife was so shy about this but she found it really adorable and kind of hot.

“And nothing, I just brought it up with the vest by mistake. That’s all” Ashlyn lied, and her wife knew it. “I’ll put it back tomorrow with the hardhat and vest. No big deal” the keeper went back through the family room to rouse the dogs and let them out the side door there into the backyard.

“No big deal at all” Ali smiled as she watched her wife run away from the awkward conversation. That was two of those tonight she thought and grinned. “But just so you know, I washed it” she shrugged even though Ashlyn couldn’t see her from the other room. “Just, you know, so you know.”

Ashlyn had never been shy about how sexy she thought Ali looked in those stupid short-sleeved, collared polo shirts with the company logo on the breast. The brunette used to wear them all summer long and she had once owned several of them in four different colors. Sadly, only one remained but it happened to be the cobalt blue color which was Ashlyn’s favorite on her wife. For some reason that color always made Ali’s almost black hair look even darker and her brown eyes seem a deeper but shinier amber color. There had been several times when Ali had come home after work and they had ended up having sex before she had a chance to change. Sometimes Ashlyn would interrupt her while she was changing, and things would get carried away.

But that had been back before they had kids. Ali hadn’t worn one of those polos since she quit her sales job back in 2017 so she could get her MBA. When the brunette saw the shirt Friday night after bringing Josie and Lily home from the Bruins game, she had a hunch. Maybe it was something she herself secretly wanted. She hadn’t bothered to examine her own motives at the time. She washed it Saturday morning and hung it to dry – there was no way she’d still fit into it if she put it in the drier now. The brunette was in good shape but her body had absolutely changed since 2017. Two pregnancies will do that to a body. Every time. And those polos had been a close-fit to begin with, by design. If she had to wear such unfeminine outfits to work back then, she certainly was going to make sure they weren’t all loose and baggy too. No way.

“You washed it huh?” Ashlyn was back, curiosity more than piqued.

“Yep” Ali popped the p and met her wife by the pantry between the kitchen and the family room, a half-smirk on her amused face.

“What’d you do that for?” Ashlyn held her wife’s body tightly against her own as they grinned at each other in the place where the mistletoe had so recently hung above them.

Ali leaned up and gave her another long, slow kiss that had them both simmering again.

“Oh, you know, just in case I might want to wear it sometime” she shrugged coyly, never taking her eyes off the hazel ones that were getting darker by the minute.

“Really?” the keeper’s eyebrows were up by her hairline. She was completely unable to hide her surprise and excitement. “When...might that be...? do you think?”

“Hmmm...” Ali pretended to consider her answer. “I was thinking maybe I’d go upstairs now and just try it on...you know, see if it still fits...”

“Oh it definitely still fits” Ashlyn nodded confidently. “Your body’s still banging baby.”

Ali grinned again, her nose wrinkling in delight at the compliment which she knew her wife meant sincerely. She also loved that Ashlyn used the same phrase she had always playfully used herself to tantalize the keeper. It wasn’t always easy or convenient to engage in sexy banter with your wife when you had a house full of four busy kids. There was always somebody listening, always.

“Why don’t you finish up down here” the brunette pointed towards the side door in the family room where the dogs would come back in soon, “then come upstairs and find out for yourself.”

Ali gave her wife a parting kiss, but this one was hungrier and she moaned into Ashlyn’s mouth when the keeper grabbed her ass with purpose.

“Can’t wait” Ashlyn panted out when they pulled apart to breathe.

“Come up the backstairs and wait at the door” Ali instructed as she walked that way herself. She turned to look at her horny keeper when she got to the bottom of the stairs and gave her a sexy wink. “Don’t take too long...”

//

“Should I knock or...” Ashlyn’s eager voice sounded from just outside the door to the master bedroom at the top of the backstairs.

It had taken her 20 minutes to get the dogs back into the house, loved up a little bit and then into Lily’s room for the night. Logan had been sleeping in there ever since she graduated from crate training three years earlier. Frankie was supposed to still be in crate training but it didn’t seem fair to keep her downstairs all by herself when her big sister was upstairs with the rest of the family. And it didn’t seem fair to make Logan go back into her crate just to keep Frankie company downstairs either. So both dogs slept with the biggest animal lover among them all. Ali and Ashlyn had tried to put Frankie in any of the other kids’ rooms just to keep the dogs from playing together when they should be sleeping, but it wouldn’t work. Frankie whined and howled unless she was with Logan. Lily loved it and the dogs behaved so what was the big deal?

“It’s February 3rd, 2015” Ali replied confidently from her place inside the master bedroom, by the foot of the bed. “You’ve just come home from a run...”

“What?” Ashlyn leaned her head closer to the door, hoping, somehow, that it would make the words make more sense.

“It’s February 3rd, 2015” Ali repeated, enunciating her words carefully and speaking a little bit louder. “You’ve just inherited the house and are about to hire George to do the work for you. You’re staying here to try and make some decisions about how to restore the house. You’ve just come home from a run...”

“Oh! Got it!” Ashlyn chuckled and then said “God I love you baby” under her breath as she started to wiggle her arms out of her t-shirt and sweatshirt.

When she was ready, the keeper opened the door to the bedroom and took two steps in. She had her arms up above her head as she was pulling her t-shirt, sweatshirt and sports bra up and over her head. For a split second she was afraid maybe she had gotten it wrong when she didn’t hear anything or sense any movement in the quiet room. But then she remembered, or at least she thought she remembered, that she had been the first one to speak back on that fateful day. Ashlyn finished pulling her clothes over her head and down her arms, dropping them on the floor in front of her and standing up.

“What the fuck?!” she yelled as quietly as she could. Even though they were flashing back to the moment they first saw each other, they were still moms with sleeping children in the next room. Ashlyn bent down and grabbed her t-shirt, quickly standing back up and holding it in front of her naked upper body.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Ali replied with a playful, flirty tone. 

She was so happy that she could almost always count on Ashlyn to be a willing participant in their more creative sexy times. She was also happy to have just seen the same gorgeous sight from that first meeting – so much bare skin, colorful tattoos, hot body, and pretty pink nipples. Ashlyn, for her part, was momentarily stunned by how sexy her wife looked in that blue polo shirt. It wasn’t factually accurate for what they were doing – Ali hadn’t been wearing it the time they first met. Ashlyn had never understood why she liked that look on the brunette so much but she had always chalked it up to it being an outfit that she associated with Ali at the beginning of their friendship. She had seen the brunette dressed in it quite often during that first summer of 2015 and it had definitely left an indelible impression. In fact, Ashlyn was so mesmerized by the polo and the sexy woman with the bright smile wearing it, that it took her a minute to even notice that Ali wasn’t wearing any pants! All she had on her lower half was a pair of orange and black tiger-striped panties. Her hair was up in a messy bun and she wore her glasses because she knew her keeper loved seeing her like that.

“Jesus Al...” she breathed out as her core twitched at the sexy sight.

Ali chuckled and grinned, pleased with herself for coming up with this little roleplay. She started to turn, pen and small notebook and measuring tape in her hands, so she could run out of the room as she had done back in 2015. 

“I’m so sorry” she repeated and winked at her stunned wife over her shoulder. It was only then that the keeper realized the panties were a thong and Ali’s perfect, round ass was on full display for her.

“Holy shit...” Ashlyn felt a stronger pang between her legs, accompanied by the telltale flipflop of her stomach. Goddamn she loved her sexy wife!

“You’d better stop me before I get to that door...” Ali giggled and spoke as an aside to her keeper, wanting her to get moving on the re-writing of this meet cute story of theirs. The brunette had an X-rated version she was looking forward to, but Ashlyn needed to wake the fuck up.

“Oh, yeah...uh...” the blonde shook her head quickly, trying to recover some composure. “Wait!” she called out in another quiet shout. “I didn’t mean to yell at you” she moved towards the foot of the bed and caught Ali’s arm just as the brunette started to step towards the bedroom door to the second-floor hallway. “You surprised me is all. Please don’t go.”

“Oh, well I hate to intrude. I didn’t know anybody was home” Ali turned back to face her wife and pretended to be dumb and clueless, shrugging her shoulders and squeezing her small breasts together between her biceps at the same time. 

“I’m Ashlyn. I live here” the keeper extended her hand but Ali couldn’t take it because her own hands were full. “What’s your name?”

“Hello Ashlyn” the brunette purred. “I’m Ali and I’m very pleased to meet you” she tucked the notepad under her arm and held the tape measure and pen in that same hand, freeing up her right hand to take the tall blonde’s hand and shake it slowly.

“Believe me beautiful, the pleasure is all mine” Ashlyn replied smoothly, lifting the brunette’s hand to her lips for a sensual kiss. “What are you doing here, in my bedroom? How did I get so damned lucky tonight?”

Wow. Not only was Ashlyn going to play along, but she was going to steal the whole damned show with her flirty, sexy, southern charm. It was a good thing she still held her t-shirt up or the brunette would have struggled to keep the act going. It was Ali’s turn to take a beat and steady herself.

“I’m here to measure your windows, but I could sure use your help” she nodded towards the window near the dressing room table, the closest one to them at that moment. Ali’s voice was slow and sultry, following her wife’s lead and moving past it. Each word that left her lips dripped with sexual inuendo and double entendre. “Do you think you could lend me a hand, Ashlyn? You look like you’ve got nice, strong hands...” 

“Fuck yes. These hands would love to... help you” the keeper took a step closer to her wife, draped her t-shirt over her shoulder, and used her left hand to find Ali’s bare hip, just below the hem of the polo shirt. “What do you need me to do?”

Ali leaned into Ashlyn, the pair still joined at their right hands. She blinked at the keeper and looked up at her through her long lashes, delivering a wicked smirk at the same time.

“Do you want to write or do you want to measure?” she licked her lips seductively as she waited for Ashlyn’s answer.

The keeper noticed a stiff nipple barely visible through the polo shirt and her mind registered the fact that Ali wasn’t wearing a bra either. This just kept getting better and better. The idea of watching Ali, skimpily clad as she was, leaning and stretching as she held up the tape measure lit a fire inside Ashlyn.

“Oh I’ll do the writing” she nodded and, after letting her left hand slide around to Ali’s exposed ass, brought it up between them and took the pad of paper and pen from Ali’s other hand. “That way I can keep my eye on you.”

“Oh you’re gonna get an eyeful...” Ali chuckled, low in her throat. “You won’t need this, will you?” she tugged on the t-shirt that Ashlyn had draped over her shoulder and which was covering one entire breast. “It’s in my way.”

“Oh no, well we can’t have it get in the way” Ashlyn grinned as she watched Ali toss it over the keeper’s shoulder towards the backstairs door. 

“So much better” Ali let her hand slide down her wife’s chest, softly caressing first one nipple and then the other. Her touch was gentle and teasing. “Should we get started?”

“Fuck yes.”

Ali walked past the blonde and extended the tape measure out about 3-1/2’ and made a show out of bending over and measuring the width of the window. She made sure to wag her ass a few times and let the thong work its magic on her wife.

“42” wide...” she paused and repositioned the tape measure so she could look at the height of the window. She reached up extra high with her arms, knowing it was a move that would drive Ashlyn wild. Her polo lifted with her arms and the combination of that bare skin with the beautiful naked ass cheeks was proving to be more than Ashlyn could take. The Frankfurt tree tattoo was almost completely visible on Ali’s lower left side, tucked up beneath her gorgeous german letters and the keeper had to swallow hard when she saw it. “...by 66” tall” the brunette called out, winking seductively over her shoulder and shifting her weight from one leg to the other so her butt would keep moving.

Ashlyn was flustered as hell and couldn’t even try to hide it. Her mouth was agape and Ali swore she could see the tiniest bit of drool there too.

“Are you gonna write that down, Allstar, or what?” she let out another low, husky chuckle that Ashlyn felt deep in her core.

The keeper dropped the pen, then struggled to open the note pad to a blank piece of paper once she had retrieved the pen. Then the pen wouldn’t work. Ashlyn tried several times to get the ink to come out with no luck. Ali laughed at her again, that sexy fucking laugh of hers that made Ashlyn’s passion pool quickly between her legs.

“Aw, fuck it” the keeper tossed the pen and notepad to the floor and moved towards her beautiful, sultry brunette with a hungry look in her darkening, hazel eyes.

“Oh no” Ali shook her head and wagged her finger at the approaching blonde. “Not so fast” she cocked her eyebrow and put one hand on her hip, jutting it out. She tried hard not to focus on the pretty pink nipples that were only inches from her fingertips now. 

“Really?” Ashlyn asked plaintively.

“Yes really” the brunette giggled and pushed her wife backwards with one finger in her chest. “Work first, then play.”

Ali saw how frustrated her keeper was getting and took pity on her. She walked past the blonde, feeling hot, hazel eyes following her as she bent over and picked up the pen and note pad from the floor. Ashlyn sucked in a breath as she took in the sight.

“Fuck me...” she whispered and licked her lips. 

“That’s the plan” Ali breathed her hot breath into Ashlyn’s ear as she stood in front of her and pressed the props back into her hands. She leaned her chest into her wife’s bare breasts, dragging the polo shirt across them and closing her eyes for a second at the contact. It was all she could do to stay in control herself. She nibbled Ashlyn’s earlobe and gave her some advice. “You don’t really have to write anything down, you know.”

There were four windows in the master bedroom, not counting the two in the backstairs or the one in the master bathroom, and it took them 15 minutes to pretend to measure all four. There was one on either side of the fireplace that overlooked the driveway side of the house, by Ali’s side of the bed, and two more on the opposite wall where they were now. They looked out onto the side yard and the empty lot. Ali led her hungry wife from the window by the dressing table to the other side of the room and the two fireplace windows, strutting her way past the foot of the bed, then up near Ali’s closet. Then they went back to the final window left by the backstairs door. The brunette sold it for all it was worth, pouting and swinging her hips and exposing as much of her skin as possible under the polo. She even crawled on her hands and knees across the bed to get to the last window, momentarily dazed when she felt Ashlyn’s strong hands on her hips holding her steady halfway across. She was about to protest but the delicious feeling of her keeper’s soft lips on her ass cheek took her breath away. 

If Ashlyn had pushed the point at that moment the brunette would have willingly given in. But in another surprising move, the blonde released her hips after the kiss and helped her off the bed on the other side.

“Last one” she gave the back of Ali’s hand a warm, open-mouthed kiss as they stood in front of the window. She could see that the brunette was beginning to falter and as much fun as she knew they would have when their work was done, that meant Ashlyn could tease her just a bit too. “Are you alright?” she drawled, letting her lips find another spot on her wife’s hand before speaking again. “You look a little...flushed.”

Ali swallowed hard and willed herself to stay strong. That mouth of Ashlyn’s was so hot and wet and sexy and it felt incredible on her skin. Even now the kisses to her hand were sending jolts of excitement through her entire body. And the keeper looked so fucking good. Half-naked with beautiful breasts and so much gorgeous ink up top and those sexy faded jeans that were almost too soft to be denim anymore. Ashlyn didn’t wear them very often, usually just around the house, but that’s partly why they were so sexy for the brunette. They meant home time and down time and, hopefully, wife time. She wondered for a second if that’s why the blonde had put them on in the first place. They hadn’t planned on having sex that night but it had been over a week since they had connected that way. Ashlyn had been gone the previous weekend and then they had dealt with the plague all week long. Suddenly it was Saturday night already.

“You still with me, beautiful?” Ashlyn had turned her wife’s hand over and was now working her lips on her palm and the insides of her fingers.

“Uh, yeah” Ali blinked and blushed as she returned from her rambling thoughts about how fucking sexy her wife looked in her jeans. “I’m fine...Sugar” she emphasized the drawl on the word they still used often during their sexy times. It was kind of a joke between them but they both loved and continued to use it. “Just one left” she squeezed Ashlyn’s hand and moved both their hands away from her lips with a slow, enticing wink. “You’ve been working so hard and doing such a good job. Would you like a little reward?” she purred, jumping right back into character.

“Yes please.”

Ali guided her wife’s hand between her legs and shivered as she felt Ashlyn’s long fingers press against the thin strap of the thong between her soaked folds. The keeper groaned and involuntarily shut her eyes as Ali’s juices coated her fingers. The brunette’s breath hitched and she felt her core ache at the touch. It took everything she had to pull Ashlyn’s hand away again.

“I can’t wait to see how wet you are for me...” she breathed out and smirked when Ashlyn opened her dark eyes.

They locked eyes for several seconds, perilously close to bailing on the last stupid window, but then Ashlyn spoke, her voice ragged with want.

“Let’s do it then.”

Ashlyn led her beautiful brunette the three steps to the window but didn’t let her go. Instead of stepping back and pretending to write numbers down on her notepad, the keeper moved behind her wife and held her tightly. She buried her face in brunette hair and smiled when she felt the loose bun against her face. Ashlyn pressed her body into the back of Ali’s and felt waves of desire shooting through her veins. She wrapped one arm around the brunette’s hips and pulled her in close. She slid the other hand up the front of the polo, underneath it so she could feel Ali’s hot skin and stiffening nipples. She splayed her hand out on her wife’s chest and pulled her into her own upper body. Ashlyn’s only regret in that moment was that she was still wearing pants. She would have killed to be able to feel her favorite ass right against her own soft skin and rough short hairs.

Their positioning definitely made the last window take longer but it was worth it. They were both aching for each other 5 minutes later and dying to move things along. 

“I love you” Ashlyn mumbled against the side of Ali’s neck, her husky words further stimulating the brunette.

“That took a little over a year longer for us to say...” Ali moaned as she officially gave up the role play, dropping the tape measure into the glider chair right next to them and then gasping when Ashlyn took one of her breasts in her hand.

“I remember every single moment of the first time we had sex” Ashlyn mumbled again, between kisses and licks and nips to her wife’s warm neck.

“It was perfect...” Ali agreed and gave herself up to her strong wife, relinquishing control of her body once and for all. 

“You’re perfect” the keeper replied as she felt the change in Ali’s body. That was such a turn on for her – knowing that the most amazing woman in the world trusted her enough to give her body to her like that. “Perfect isn’t even a good enough word for you baby.”

They were both breathing heavily and Ali’s hands clutched at whatever pale skin they could find behind her. One hand moved down and grabbed Ashlyn’s ass, regretting for the first time that night that she was wearing those jeans. She only had a second for that before long fingers began moving towards the front of the thong.

“Fuck Ash...”

“Oh my God you drive me crazy” Ashlyn moaned as she scratched lightly at the tiger striped satin material with one hand and pinched a stiff, dark nipple with the other. “I can’t get enough of you” she locked her lips onto Ali’s neck and sucked hard.

The brunette was so distracted by the hand between her legs that she didn’t even register the bruising lips at her neck. She was trying to tilt her hips up somehow so she could get Ashlyn’s fingers where she really wanted them. She felt hot and flushed and flustered. She wanted to take the polo and thong off but she also felt like she might die if she separated even a tiny bit from her gorgeous keeper’s body.

“Baby, please...” she begged, turning her head to the side, looking for a kiss from Ashlyn’s hot mouth and grabbing onto her ass with both hands.

Their lips met and their tongues dove into a sexy, sloppy kiss. Ashlyn started to grind up against her wife, slowly rocking and gyrating her hips. Ali’s legs got weak and the pair stumbled briefly before the keeper steadied them.

“I’ve got you” Ashlyn panted into Ali’s ear as they tried to catch their breath after the searing kiss. 

Ali’s head was still turned to the side, wanting more. Ashlyn captured her lips in another passionate kiss and walked them both backwards towards the bed. She knew the brunette was insanely worked up when she didn’t even try to resist, not even to try and keep her balance. Ali let her keeper guide them, still front to back, and sat on her lap like that once Ashlyn sat down on the bed.

“Kneel on the bed” the blonde instructed as she leaned back and lifted up as much of her wife’s body weight as she could, just enough so Ali could bend her legs up and do as she had been asked. “Good, now stand up tall for me” Ashlyn spoke again and her hands were all over the brunette’s lower body now.

Ashlyn sat as far back on the bed as she could with her legs hanging down off the side. The bed was right up against the back of her knees. Ali was still in front of her and facing away from her, and she straddled the keeper’s lap and stood up on her knees. Their bodies were still pressed tightly together, Ashlyn’s front to the back of Ali’s thighs. The keeper groaned loudly as her wife’s perfect round ass rose to rest right in front of her face.

“Yesssssss...” she hissed and started to kiss and lick and bite one of her favorite body parts of her wife.

Ali wasn’t that happy with the arrangement because she couldn’t see Ashlyn at all and she couldn’t touch much of her either. She could feel her though. That was for fucking sure. One of Ashlyn’s hands was up her polo now and playing with her breasts and nipples. It felt amazing. Ali was so turned on that every little touch felt like an electric shockwave running right to her throbbing pussy. Ashlyn’s other hand had stopped scratching at the front of the thong and had begun rubbing slow circles through the material, around her aching clit.

“Oh my fucking God...” Ali moaned and immediately ground down against her wife’s strong fingers. “Yes, fuck...yes...”

Ashlyn’s plan was to take her time with her sexy brunette. She wanted to tease her clit a bit before pushing the thong aside and letting Ali ride her long fingers. But there wasn’t time for that. It became crystal clear to Ashlyn that her wife was going to come in a matter of seconds, not even minutes. Apparently the role play had worked for them both. Ali’s body was already starting to quiver. Her back and chest had broken into a light sweat under the polo and her breath was ragged while her chest heaved. Her legs slid out to the sides as she started to lose control of them and her body slipped lower and lower as Ashlyn rubbed smaller and harder circles around her sensitive nub.

“Oh my fucking God...” the brunette moaned again and kept repeating it every few seconds as she got closer and closer to her release. It was one of Ashlyn’s favorite chants ever. “Oh my fucking God...”

“Does that feel good baby?” the keeper’s thick voice turned her wife on even more. “I love these beauties so much, they’re so soft” she caressed the outside of Ali’s breast. “And so fucking hard at the same fucking time” she added as she tugged on the stiff nipple.

“Fuck!” Ali shouted in a breathy, hushed way as she lost more control and bent forward. She supported herself with her hands on Ashlyn’s thighs and she had a fleeting thought about trying to be careful not to hurt her bad knee...which knee was it again?...the brunette’s mind was mush as she climbed higher and higher.

“What do you need sexy?” Ashlyn left wet, sloppy kisses on Ali’s lower back and mumbled against her hot skin. 

“Unnnhhh...” she moaned in reply. “MMmmmm...”

“Tell me what you want” the keeper teased her, slowing down her fingers on Ali’s clit and making her whine for more. “I need to hear you say it...”

“More...” Ali’s desperate, panting words came out in spurts. “Need you...my clit...more, please...fuck...”

That was all it took for Ashlyn to redouble her efforts with both hands and her mouth. She tweaked both nipples, alternating from one to the other. She rubbed her fingers hard and fast against her wife’s clit, sending her tumbling over the edge in less than a minute.

“Yessssssss!!!” Ali hissed as her orgasm hit her.

“Mmmm...oh yeah baby...yessss...” Ashlyn grinned against the bare skin of her wife’s lower back as her body shook with spasm after spasm.

The keeper laid back on the bed and pulled her wife back carefully with her. She let Ali get her bent legs out of the way and then groaned with pleasure when she felt all of the brunette’s body weight resting on top of her. Ashlyn wrapped her arms around Ali’s stomach and could feel every twitch as each one passed through the brunette’s body. It felt incredible. All of it. As horny as Ashlyn was, she would have loved to stay like that for hours. She could feel her wife’s heart racing wildly against her chest, right through her back. She couldn’t see Ali’s face, but she knew the blissful satisfied look that always appeared there in the afterglow. She could see it clearly if she just closed her eyes.

But Ali wasn’t ready to lay still for very long. They were both still wearing way too many clothes and she wanted to do something about it post-haste. The brunette rolled over so she was on her stomach, finally face to face with the love of her life.

“Hi” she breathed out, enormous nose-wrinkling grin on her face.

“Hi” Ashlyn retuned the grin but hers was full of surprise too. “You ok? I thought we could stay like that for a few minutes...”

“Nope” Ali shook her head and gave her wife’s lips a long, slow kiss – her mound already beginning to grind against Ashlyn’s.

“Mmmmm...yeah, this is way better” Ashlyn smirked after the kiss, her hands firmly on Ali’s butt and her hips rising up to meet each push down from the brunette. “Fuck, that feels good.”

They made out slowly and deeply, filling the room with soft moans that got hungrier and louder all the time. Ashlyn slipped her fingers under the polo shirt again after pushing the thong down to the brunette’s thighs. Ali pulled it all the way off so she could spread her legs out for better leverage. Their lips never separated, except for quick breaks to breathe which were filled with gasps and moans into the sweaty skin of their necks. Ali had her hand in Ashlyn’s hair, pulling at it while her other hand tugged on the beltloop of her jeans, pulling the keeper closer and closer. The brunette slid over so she was grinding against Ashlyn’s right thigh, pressing her own thigh between her keeper’s legs. The passionate make-out continued until Ali abruptly sat up.

“What?” Ashlyn panted.

Ali didn’t respond. She just pulled her wife up so they could be skin to skin again and continue kissing. Ashlyn’s need was getting problematic. She had been just as turned on by the roleplay and it had only gotten more intense since then. She could feel how wet she was. Her underwear was soaked and she knew there was no way the crotch of her jeans could still be dry. No fucking way. But the denim, soft as it was, felt good between her pussy and Ali’s strong thigh. It felt damn good. Ashlyn had a quick flashback to her first fevered make-outs in high school when clothes stayed on and things stayed relatively safe. Even that safe level felt exciting and dangerous back then though. Ashlyn would never have guessed how incredible sex could be with someone you loved the way she loved Ali. There just weren’t words to describe how her body felt when they were making love.

As if she could read her mind, Ali leaned back and lifted the polo up and over her head. She gave Ashlyn a lustful look and undid the button of her jeans. 

“These need to come off now” she added as she pulled the zipper down, backing up off the bed and tugging the jeans off from the legs. The soaked boxer briefs came with them and Ali quirked her eyebrow at her sexy wife. “Get wet much?” 

“You’ve always done that to me baby. You can’t be surprised now” she chuckled and then sucked in a breath when Ali climbed back into position, sitting on top of the blonde.

“I love it” the brunette admitted what she had confessed a million times already. “It’s so fucking sexy” she pulled Ashlyn towards her by the shoulders and captured her lips in another deep kiss. 

They made out some more but it wasn’t quite as lazy now. Now they were ready for so much more and they both seemed to feel it at the same time, as their bodies rubbed and moved together.

“I’m gonna make you feel so good” Ali promised, her hot words setting Ashlyn’s neck on fire all over again.

“I need you inside me Al...” the keeper’s voice was hoarse, the intensity of her want finally too much to endure for even another minute.

Ali didn’t waste a second. She was straddling Ashlyn’s right thigh so she pulled her own right knee back and let her fingers trail up and down through soaked folds and drenched short hairs.

“So fucking hot” she mumbled against Ashlyn’s other lips as she kissed her hard.

“Baby...” the keeper whined and dug her blunt nails into both of Ali’s thighs to let her know just how urgent the situation was.

Ali hissed at the contact but didn’t skip a beat. She pushed two fingers into her wife’s pulsing core and swallowed the loud moan that came out of her mouth at the same time. The brunette worked hard and fast, knowing she could take her time in round 2 because she wasn’t nearly done herself so there was definitely going to be at least one more round. 

“Unnnhhh...yeah baby...fuck...” Ashlyn moaned and flopped back onto the bed again. 

“God I love being inside you...” Ali moved her other hand to her wife’s swollen clit and had her racing towards her orgasm in mere minutes. 

The brunette took advantage of that brief time to admire the beauty beneath her. She would never tire of that view. Naked Ashlyn was gorgeous no matter what the circumstance, but naked Ashlyn about to come? that was the piece de resistance for the brunette. It was Ali’s masterpiece. As much as she loved El Jaleo and other beautiful works of art, there was nothing as magnificent as this, right now. Ashlyn’s face, pink and full; her beautiful breasts jiggling with the rest of her body as the brunette thrusted inside her; the muscles in her arms flexing slightly as she reached to hold onto Ali’s knee with one hand and play with her own nipples with the other; her sexy fucking tattoos, telling so many stories and being such an important canvas for the blonde all these years...

“Aliiii!!!!” Ashlyn yelled out, interrupting her wife’s reverential inventory before she had even gotten to her glorious pussy and long-ass legs.

“Yes baby” Ali cooed as she watched the body she loved more than anything else go through the familiar motions as her wife rode out the powerful orgasm. “So fucking beautiful” she whispered as she witnessed the thing she loved the most. There was nothing on this earth that Ali Krieger loved more than giving her wife an orgasm. Not one fucking thing. She raked her eyes up and down Ashlyn’s glorious form again, moved beyond measure. “You’re a masterpiece Ashlyn...” she whispered emotionally and let the blonde take her hand, entwining their fingers. She repeated it when they locked eyes a few seconds later, surprising herself with just how choked up she felt in that moment. “You’re my glorious masterpiece.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's go USA!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to watch the game tonight. One more win to Tokyo!!


	7. Meg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slight delay. Meg's chapter today and then the last chapter, Ali's chapter later this week.  
> I really liked writing this chapter - let me know what you think.

Meg and Gwen, her college roommate, teammate and bestie, were moving into off-campus housing for their last semester at Boston College. It was a large, 4-bedroom house in Newton so it was still close to campus and everything they needed to get to. Neither young woman had any complaints about their time living together in the dorm – they had both quite enjoyed it. But that winter, when three of their teammates invited them to join them in the house, it sounded too much fun to pass up. Spring semester classes were starting on Wednesday, January 25th and the girls had planned to move into the house the weekend before. The problem was, it wasn’t ready. The landlord had decided to make some upgrades – one of the new tenant’s moms had made an anonymous phone call to the building inspector in town to report some inadequacies in the student housing compliance at the property. Consequently, move-in day had been delayed by a full week. 

It was a terrible inconvenience for the two girls who didn’t live locally, Gwen and Haley. The two out of staters were allowed to store their furniture in the big living room of the house for that week but nobody was allowed to officially move in until Saturday, January 28th. No-one ever figured out which mom had been responsible for the anonymous call, but everyone knew it had been Ali Krieger who negotiated the terms of the compromised move-in date. She was the one who came in to put the fire out that somebody else had started, however innocently. Hannah had also stepped in, perhaps to appease her guilty conscience?, and paid for hotel rooms for both Gwen and Haley who didn’t have anywhere to go for a week. It all turned out ok in the end though. And the slightly run-down house got new locks on the exterior doors, new handrails on the front steps, a new deck at the back of the house, and all new smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers to boot. The garbage disposal still sucked and the water pressure in the two bathrooms wasn’t great, but it was safer than it had ever been to live there after the upgrades, however ill-timed they might have been. All the parents were happy that they wouldn’t have to worry about rotting decks and rusted out handrails and non-working safety devices for their daughters anymore.

“Meggie, are you coming to my game today?” Dodge asked, trying to keep his voice a little softer than usual as he leaned on his big sister’s bed at 8:35am Sunday morning. 

He was doing what he had always done when he was excited by the prospect of somebody he loved who didn’t often get to come to one of his games, actually had a good chance to attend one. He leaned the front of his body against the side of the bed and pushed his hands down on top of the edge of the mattress, repeatedly. The speed with which he pressed and repeated it over and over again was directly related to how excited he was. He had woken his mothers up this way ever since he graduated to his own big boy bed and could stand tall enough to reach his hands up to the top of the mattress in their bedroom. As he grew it became easier and easier but he never stopped doing it. It was the first weekend of indoor soccer and his game was the first of the Krieger’s day at 10am.

Meg’s eyes opened slowly and blinked a couple of times as she tried to get her bearings. She had gone to bed early last night after enjoying a long, heart to heart call with Emma Donaldson who was still one of her closest friends. Meg had slept well, and felt really good that morning. And that had been the plan because she had a big day scheduled. She was helping Gwen move her things into the Newton house. She had one third of the boxes Gwen had stored in the garage of the big old house for winter break loaded into her Jeep already and was looking forward to hanging out with her bestie for most of the day.

“Oh, no dude, I don’t think I can today” she frowned sadly at her kid brother as she rolled onto her back and stretched her lanky frame out with a yawn and a squeak. She tried to remember the complicated schedule for the kids that weekend but failed miserably. “What time is your game again?”

“10” he nodded, still smiling optimistically and pressing down on the mattress as he watched her closely. “Then Drew is right after mine. Then Lily’s is after lunch” he rattled off the schedule with ease because he had just been reminded of it by his Mom before running up to see if Meg would be joining them at the Ashlyn Harris Sports Complex that morning. “It’s a lot closer now. The game I mean” he continued his earnest sales pitch. “It’s at Mama’s place, not way up by New Hampshire anymore.”

The sales pitch was ok, but it was the adorable, endearing face that worked the magic on the young woman.

“10 o’clock huh?” Meg rolled back onto her side and faced him, glancing quickly at the clock on her nightstand. She was planning to be on the road to Newton at 9:30am, or 10:00am at the latest. It wouldn’t kill her to move that back to 11:00am, would it? She could just leave right from the game – it was on her way out of town anyway. “Are you gonna play keeper today?” she tried to keep the grin off of her face. Even though she had already made up her mind, she wanted to play it cool with the eager boy. 

“Probably” he shrugged, genuinely not sure about the answer. “Coach usually lets me play there in the first half, but I don’t know for sure yet cuz it’s our first game.”

It was true. Dodge usually played one half of his indoor soccer games in net, by choice. He loved it. But he also loved scoring goals too. At that age they didn’t rotate through goalkeepers anymore as they had done when the kids were younger. Now the kids had to show fearlessness and desire to play keeper and those were two qualities Dodge Krieger had in spades. 

“I guess I can come check it out” her heart surged when she saw the look of love and adoration fill his face. “But I can only stay for the first game. You’re just lucky it’s yours.”

“Yes!!” he pumped both fists in front of him and laughed in his glee. “It’s gonna be great” he nodded enthusiastically at the redhead who sat up and started to get out of bed. “You’ll see!”

“Can’t wait little man” she grinned as she received one of his biggest, bone-crushing hugs when she stood up. “Oof” she giggled softly. “Can’t wait.”

//

After using the bathroom, showering, getting dressed, making her bed, and applying her make-up – all in the girls’ bathroom she shared with her sisters, Meg trotted down the two flights of front stairs and made her way to the kitchen. She kept her eye out for Ashlyn, still not ready to face her after Wednesday’s embarrassing encounter. It was 9:20am and she had already greeted Ali and Lily and the dogs during one or the other of her trips to the girls’ bathroom on the second floor. Meg made herself a coffee and saw Drew eating breakfast at the nook table in the back corner of the family room. Something smelled really good and as she turned to investigate, Ali came down the backstairs dressed for the day and ready to get her troops rounded up. It occurred to the redhead that Ali had always looked the same, which was a compliment. She was wearing jeans and an unzipped, lightweight fleece over a t-shirt and soft, pretty flannel. It was always about layering for those long days doing a dozen different things with several different kids. Sure her just above the shoulder hair was a little shorter now that she was older, and there were changes in the brunette’s face – Meg could see some wrinkles here and there, but Ali’s bright smile and the life in her eyes looked exactly the same as they had for Meg’s entire life.

“I made French toast, it’s in the oven for you” the brunette gave Meg a smile as she walked briskly past her and into the front living room with Lily’s soccer uniform in her hands. “Dodge seems to think you’re coming to his game” she chuckled and shrugged. “It’s at 10 if you are. At the Complex. We’re leaving in 20 minutes.”

“Yeah, I’m coming. It’s hard to resist such an adorable invitation” Meg laughed softly and took her first sip of coffee. 

She hummed and closed her eyes and took another sip. She could hear Ali telling Lily to get her soccer bag packed because they might go out to lunch with Grandpa and Vivi before her game instead of coming home. She saw the basement door was open and knew Dodge was down there playing a video game, perhaps with Josie and Ashlyn.

“Where’s Jojo?” Meg asked Ali a few minutes later when they were both back in the kitchen. 

The redhead sat at the small 2-person table eating French toast and sausage while the brunette got everybody’s insulated water bottles ready for the day at the counter by the refrigerator. 

“She’s at gymnastics. She and Ash should be home any minute though.”

Just as Ken Krieger wanted to scope out this new gymnastics thing, Ashlyn had woken up feeling the same way so she had decided to take Josie instead of having Ali do it again.

“Oh right, I forgot about that. Gymnastics huh?” Meg nodded and sped up her chewing. “Does she like it? She just started it, right?”

“Yesterday was the first class and I don’t really know” Ali sighed but smiled. “It’s so different than anything she’s done before. But then parts of it are kind of familiar because of some of the dancing she’s done in plays and recitals.”

“I have a hard enough time with yoga” Meg chuckled. “I can’t even imagine gymnastics.”

“Every Saturday and Sunday at 8am for 6 weeks” Ali laughed with her. “If you ever wanna check it out.”

“Ouch. 8am? Damn.”

“No kidding” the brunette agreed. “Do you want one?” she waved an empty water bottle towards the college senior. “I’m on a roll.”

“Yes please.”

“Drew you’d better be ready!” Ali called out to her son who was still in the nook and not getting his soccer bag together yet. “We’re leaving in 10 minutes!”

Neither woman could hear his muffled reply but it sounded like a vague affirmative. Before the brunette could clarify it, the mudroom door opened and Josie skipped into the house with Ashlyn following a few steps behind her. The gymnast twirled her way into the kitchen and over to Meg, thrilled to fill her in about her newest endeavor. While the two redheads chatted by the kitchen table, Ashlyn stepped into the kitchen and wrapped her wife up from behind. Meg finished her breakfast, half-listening to her little sister, and watched two of her moms greet each other in the loving way that they almost always did. Sometimes it was a shorter exchange if they were pressed for time. Sometimes it was a longer moment if they weren’t. This morning the greeting was long and loving and sickeningly sweet – as usual. 

Ali put Meg’s water bottle down, closed her eyes, and leaned back into her wife’s warm embrace. Ashlyn put her chin on top of the brunette’s shoulder and nuzzled into her neck, kissing her cheek sweetly and then kissing her neck less innocently as she slowly swayed their bodies back and forth. They were in their own world and Meg had always admired the way they could do that. No matter what was going on around them, they were always able to connect with each other in a real way, however briefly. The redhead could understand a lot more of Ali and Ashlyn’s interactions now that she was in love herself. She knew how good it felt to have Charlie wrap her up that way and nuzzle into her neck like that. All of a sudden she realized that she was seeing the extra lovey-dovey display of two people who had connected most intimately very recently. Ewww. As much as she looked up to their relationship, Meg really did not want to think about Ashlyn and Ali having sex. No thank you. She loved how they loved each other but that all stopped at the bedroom door.

Meg looked down quickly when Ashlyn turned to scan the room, perhaps sensing they were being watched more than usual. The two keepers avoided eye contact and both immediately started to do something else. Meg practically jumped up from the table and hurried her empty plate to the sink with Josie following her, still talking. Ashlyn pulled back from her wife and made an abrupt exit. Ali could hear the blonde open the door to the basement and call down to get Dodge to come up and get ready to leave. The brunette looked over towards the sink and then into the mudroom and rolled her eyes. This was getting ridiculous. That moment was not the time to address it, unfortunately – but Ali had the beginnings of an idea. She would formalize it when she could focus more.

Meg took advantage of Ashlyn’s absence to ask Ali an important question.

“So, are you still cool with driving the rest of Gwen’s boxes down this afternoon?”

“What?” Ali took a beat to catch up, her mind still enjoying the flashback to her blue polo shirt and the incredible sexy times from the night before. “Um, oh yeah” she nodded. “Yes. I’ll drive them down after Lily’s game...I should get there around 4:00pm?” she asked more than stated.

“Perfect” Meg smiled at Ali and gave Josie a hug goodbye. She winked at the mini redhead. “See you tonight girlie.”

“Grandpa and Vivi will be here this afternoon” Ali reminded the busy young woman of the family’s plans for the later part of the day. “And Koty and Bri and Tori will be here at 6pm for dinner.”

“Got it” Meg gave Ali a quick hug on her way to the mudroom and, hopefully, out the door before Ashlyn came back into the room. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Don’t forget this” Ali grabbed the water bottle from the counter and handed it to the redhead.

“Can I go with Meg?” Drew was somehow, magically right there in the mudroom, completely dressed with his winter boots and coat on and his soccer bag slung over his shoulder.

“Ask her yourself” Ali reached for Drew’s water bottle with a shake of her head. 

She would have had to nag him for the entire remaining 10 minutes to get him out the door on time, but somehow he was able to get all of his shit together in 2 minutes flat so he could ride with Meg. Ugh. Teenagers.

“Can I ride with you?” Drew asked, trying not to look like it mattered so much to him.

“Yep. But I’m in charge of the music” Meg gave him a playful quirk of her eyebrow and threw her arm around his shoulders as they moved towards the door. Then she laughed. “Oh and you’ll probably have to hold a box on your lap.” Meg snagged her own bag and grabbed her coat, calling over her shoulder on their way out the door. “See you guys there!”

//

The short drive to the AHSC, or the Complex or Plex as the Krieger family abbreviated it, did not provide enough time for Drew to finish updating his big sister on the outcome of his break-up with Teri earlier that week. Meg had texted him to follow up on the situation, but Drew had been typically quiet about it and they hadn’t spoken about it again since Meg had given him advice way back on Monday. So they sat in her Jeep and talked until they saw the minivan pull up with the rest of the family, except for Josie who had stayed home to practice for District. Meg was pleased that Drew had done the breaking up in person and in what sounded like a respectable and kind manner. That was really all anybody could ask for in those situations and she was proud of her brother. There were a lot of kids who would have taken the easy way out, especially if they were as shy as Drew. 

“So how are things with Danielle then?” Meg asked with a wink.

“There aren’t any things with Danielle” Drew rolled his eyes but smiled shyly.

“Oh come on. She was at your game Friday night, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s only because her team played right before us.”

“But she stayed to watch, didn’t she?” the redhead pushed her point.

“Yeah, but...”

“Well, she didn’t have to do that, did she?” she gave him a knowing smirk.

“All her friends were there though. It didn’t mean anything” he shrugged. “It’s just what kids do on Friday nights.”

Ashlyn had met Ken, Vicki, and Dodge at Drew’s JV basketball game Friday night while the girls were at the Bruins game. Drew didn’t play because he had missed Wednesday and Thursday practice while he was home sick, but he had sat on the bench Friday night like a good teammate and cheered his team on. 

“Ok, if you say so” Meg patted his leg as they started to get out of the Jeep. “But sometimes you have to talk to the girls you know. Otherwise they don’t know you like them.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know” he sighed as they slowly walked towards the entrance together. 

“Have you seen Teri since?”

“Yeah, in school the next day. We had band together on Tuesday, before I got sick.”

“And how was that?”

“Weird” he shrugged. “She kinda seemed happy.”

“Well weren’t you kinda happy too?”

“Yeah, but...I don’t know. It was weird.”

“Welcome to dating, my dude” Meg laughed. 

Dodge’s soccer game was more entertaining than the tall redhead thought it was going to be and she wasn’t really prepared for how much she loved seeing him in goal. He’d always been such a prolific scorer and playmaker that she hadn’t really considered what a great fit he would be as a keeper. She wouldn’t say this out loud to anybody besides maybe Ashlyn, but it seemed like a waste of talent to restrict him to playing goalkeeper. She could say that though, as a keeper herself. She knew it wasn’t disparaging to keepers so much as it was stating a fact about Dodge’s incredible talent level with the ball at his feet. Nobody wanted to see Alex Morgan playing keeper, even though she could probably do it really well.

The hour spent at the Plex turned out to be wonderful and Meg promised herself that she would try her hardest to make it to some more games that winter. She had been worried about seeing Ashlyn again but the blonde had been called away to do some glad-handing and schmoozing and watched Dodge’s game from three different places in the facility, none of which were with her family. Whew. Bullet dodged. The hardest part of the morning was apologizing to Drew and Lily for missing their games. But Meg was her usual sweet, sincere self and promised to make it to one of their games in the next few weekends. 

//

It took a little over an hour to get to Newton from Gloucester and Meg was starving by the time she pulled into the Newton Marriott to pick up Gwen and Haley. There wasn’t really room in the Jeep for three of them, but they were resourceful and made it work – they weren’t going very far anyway. After lunch they made three trips to the new house with boxes and paraphernalia from both Gwen and Haley’s old dorm rooms. The out of state girls had stored their things among 3 different teammates who lived nearby so it was pretty convenient. The stuff that wouldn’t fit there had gone up to the big old house in Gloucester where Meg knew it would be welcomed and protected. That was the stuff Ali was bringing down at 4pm.

As the girls wandered around the empty house they would be moving into next weekend, it was clear to them that the upgrade work had been completed. Everything on the checklist had been done and all that was left was a mess to clean up. The house was in dire need of a thorough scouring from top to bottom, including all the carpeting. The crew hired to build the new deck had obviously done their work inside the house to stay warm because there was a thin layer of sawdust everywhere. It was disheartening and maddening at the same time. Classes started in two days and they wouldn’t be able to live in their own damn house until Saturday! The other four teammates were staying at the two hotel rooms when a car was available, or crashing with friends, and boyfriends and girlfriends on campus for those 4 upcoming nights that week. Meg was going to stay at Hannah’s condo and drive to Newton on the days when her first class wasn’t until 10am. But the days when she had to be in her classroom by 8:30am she would crash with Charlie in his dorm. It was just so much easier.

“I still wanna know who called the building inspector” Haley groused as they deposited the last of the boxes and stuffed laundry baskets and big black plastic garbage bags full of her possessions in the middle of the large living room. “So I can punch them in the face.”

“It had to be one of our moms” Gwen shook her head and sighed heavily, tired from their three hours of hard work. “The landlord said it was a ‘concerned parent’.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it has to be one of ours” Meg cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

In truth, the redhead was pretty sure it had been Hannah who called in the complaint. She didn’t know it for certain and Hannah had denied it when Meg had asked her. It had been a long three weeks of frustration and negotiation since the landlord confronted his new tenants about the complaint. 

“Whatever” Gwen groaned and stretched her back out as she stood up. “I’m just glad your mom smoothed everything over for us. Jesus fucking Christ. What a shitshow.”

They all commiserated for a few minutes and Meg took a quiet second to appreciate Ali’s cool, calm reaction to the fiasco. The brunette had done that for as long as Meg had known her. She was always the one who stayed calm in a crisis. The redhead would never understand how she did it, she was just glad Ali was in her corner.

“Can we please go shopping and to a movie now?” Haley revisited the subject that had come up during lunch. “It’s been a hundred years since we’ve just hung out like that.”

Both Gwen and Haley looked at Meg because she was the key to everything. She had the wheels that would be necessary to make this happen. Newton was not a big city like Cambridge or Boston. There was no subway system and the only way to get around without a car was to take a bus or call a car service. It was Sunday and the bus schedule was severely limited, and if they spent the money it would cost to get a ride out to one of the two big malls in the area then they’d have no money left to buy anything when they got there. Meg had been vague about the plan at lunch but her two friends didn’t know why.

“I can’t do it tonight” she finally admitted, feeling bad about leaving her friends in the lurch. “Family dinner” she shrugged.

“Oh come on, they’ll let you miss one” Gwen cocked her head at her best friend, knowing full well that both Ali and Ashlyn didn’t expect Meg at dinner every Sunday night. Not even close. “You’ve been there for, like, three already this month.”

“No I haven’t” Meg corrected sadly. “And besides, it’s not just my family, it’s my grandparents and my uncle...”

“Ugh...” Haley looked dejected. “It’s a whole thing. That sucks.”

“Ooh, which uncle?” Gwen perked right up. She was infatuated with Tanner Wild and always had been.

“Down girl” Meg laughed. “It’s Koty.”

They all laughed as Gwen blushed.

“Listen, why don’t you guys just take my Jeep” the redhead had a brainstorm right in front of their very eyes.

“Well what are you gonna do?”

“Ali’s on her way here now, with the rest of your boxes” she nodded at Gwen. “I’ll just get a ride home with her. Charlie’s coming up to Gloucester tomorrow anyway so I won’t need it until Tuesday.”

“I can drive up and get you Tuesday” Gwen offered as she took in the generous plan. She knew better than anybody how protective the redhead was of her Jeep. She had learned it from Ashlyn and both women took their Jeeps very seriously. “Really Meg, is this ok?”

Haley was already looking at movie times in her phone and calling them out to Gwen as they finalized the Jeep sharing plans. If they left right that minute they could make it in time for the less expensive pre-5:00pm movie time.

“Go on” Meg laughed as she held the keys out to her best friend in the whole world. She snatched them back a second before Gwen could grab them. “If you put even one scratch on her...” she warned ominously.

“I’ll treat her like the princess she is” Gwen laughed but then gave the redhead a more serious nod and a smile. “I promise.”

About 10 minutes later, Meg’s phone rang and it was Ali telling her that she was pulling into the driveway. 4:05pm, right on time.

“You faked me out” Ali laughed as she stepped out of the minivan and hugged Meg. “Where’s your Jeep?”

“Oh I let Gwen and Haley take it to the movies. Can I get a ride home with you?”

“Of course you can sweetheart” Ali pushed a button and the rear hatch of the minivan opened. “Let’s get these unloaded.”

Meg stopped dead in her tracks when she got to the back of the vehicle and saw Ashlyn standing there. The blonde froze for a second too, internally cussing out her crafty wife who had made this whole surprise rendezvous happen in the first place.

“Oh, hi” Meg said simply as she adjusted to her shock.

“Hey” Ashlyn replied shyly and then quickly grabbed a big box and headed to the house.

“Alrighty then” Ali smiled to herself and followed the two stubborn women into the house with the first three boxes. Meg’s vehicle predicament had played right into the brunette’s hand.

It only took them 20 minutes to unload the rest of the boxes and stack them neatly in the living room. Ashlyn and Meg had both been so industrious that Ali hardly had to lift a finger. She used the opportunity to take several pictures of the house, inside and out, so she could address the serious clean-up necessary with the landlord the next day. There was no way those girls should be expected to clean up after his construction crew. No fucking way and absolutely not on Ali’s watch. Ashlyn was apoplectic at the condition of the house and that seemed to distract her from her overall discomfort being around Meg. But when it was time to get into the minivan and make the 70-minute drive up to Gloucester, both keepers were reluctant.

“Oh for God’s sake you two. Get in the damned car” Ali chuckled but they all knew she was going to do something about their...situation...whether Meg and Ashlyn wanted her to or not. 

Ashlyn climbed into the passenger seat and Meg got into the seat behind the driver’s seat, both avoiding eye contact with each other at all costs. Ali buckled herself in, made sure everybody had phones and keys and purses and then backed out of the driveway. She was so used to going through that routine with the younger kids that she sometimes didn’t even realize she was doing it with the grown-ups too. The first 10 minutes were filled with Ali and Meg talking about the house and how the rest of the afternoon had gone with the rest of the boxes and things for Gwen and Haley. But as soon as that topic ran dry, Ali turned the music off and cleared her throat, checking the rear-view mirror to get a look at Meg’s tense face. Ashlyn looked just as miserable and it was all the brunette could do not to start laughing out loud at them both.

“So, this is ridiculous and it’s going to stop now” she spoke evenly but there was a lightness to her voice because she thought the whole thing was too silly to be happening in the first place. “I’ve watched you two goofballs go to great lengths to avoid each other for the past four days and I’m done. Time to grow up and deal with the fact that there was an embarrassing situation that you both still feel...uncomfortable about.”

“Al, listen...”  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

They both spoke at the same time, still trying to avoid the conversation.

“No Ash, you listen” Ali gave her a quick but stern glance as she drove them up Rt 128 towards Gloucester. “And I do know exactly what I’m talking about” the brunette caught Meg’s eye in the mirror and quirked an eyebrow at her. “Ashlyn told me what happened...”

Meg’s face went pale and she slunk down in her seat, hoping to die that very instant. Somehow it was sooooo much worse knowing that Ali knew too.

“There, ok, we talked about it” Ashlyn spoke quickly, hoping to just get it over with as fast as possible without really delving into any details or feelings or...anything. “I walked in on Meg and Charlie and I’m sorry it happened and now we’re good.”

“Yeah, um, ok” Meg agreed, sensing the blonde’s plan might work. “I’m sorry too. Good talk.”

“You guys” Ali did laugh that time. “I’m gonna keep putting you two together as much as possible until you figure out how to move past this. So you might wanna just talk it out now and get it over with.”

They both knew it wasn’t an empty threat. 

“I uh,” Ashlyn cleared her throat nervously. “Um, I guess I just need a little time to...”

But nothing else came out of her mouth to finish her sentence. Ali waited as long as she could before chiming in again.

“To what?” she met her wife’s flustered gaze and gave her a soft, encouraging smile. 

“I don’t know” Ashlyn exhaled loudly. “To forget it ever happened I guess?”

“That’s one way to approach it” Ali nodded thoughtfully. “But, here’s the thing that’s driving me nuts. You’re both walking around like you did something wrong, and that’s just dumb. Nobody did anything wrong,” she gave Meg a serious look in the mirror, “as long as you were having safe sex. You were, weren’t you Meg? I mean, we didn’t raise you to be dumb enough to be having unprotected sex. That would be the only thing that could even remotely be wrong...but holy shit would it be wrong...”

“No!” Meg yelled, cheeks deep red in her embarrassment. “We’re always careful.”

All three women were having flashbacks to 10 months earlier when Meg had come to them terrified that she might be pregnant. That had been the last time they had discussed the redhead’s safe sex practices with Charlie. In detail. 

“There’s no reason for either of you to apologize then” Ali stated, matter-of-factly. “You both wish it hadn’t happened, obviously. But it did and you’re embarrassed and that needs to be the end of it. How often do we get Meg staying at home like she is now?” the brunette gave her wife a pointed look.

“Not very often” Ashlyn replied glumly.

“I was really looking forward to watching that movie with you guys last night but no, I had to slowly figure out what the hell was going on between the two of you like freaking Hercule Poirot!” she raised her voice but it was more regret and frustration than anything else. “Now get your shit together, both of you!”

Nobody said anything for a full minute, but both keepers knew if one of them didn’t make some sort of effort that Ali would be right back at them again. There was no escape and still almost 40 minutes left of the drive home.

“I didn’t know anybody was gonna be there” Meg spoke first, impressing both moms with her courage. “We got out of helping Charlie’s parents that day...but he’s staying with them and I’m staying with you...and we were just looking for a little privacy...”

“Well, on top of your mother’s desk doesn’t exactly scream privacy” Ali couldn’t help herself and giggled before trying to get herself back under control.

“Ugh, I know!” Meg buried her face in her hands and spoke through them because she was so embarrassed. “Charlie loves that room, it’s the stupid bookcases I think, I don’t know” she shook her head, hands still in place. “It wasn’t even comfortable. My back still hurts...”

Ali laughed out loud - her short, shout of a laugh that filled the whole minivan with mirth and forgiveness.

“Oh it never is honey” Ashlyn finally added to the conversation, chuckling along with her wife and Meg who was now giggling quietly too. “Trust me when I tell you – always go for the bed or the couch or something soft. It’s almost never worth it if you don’t.”

“That is the absolute truth!” Ali laughed some more, relieved to see there had been a breakthrough. “But seriously honey, you have every right to be in that condo any time you want” she looked for Meg’s eyes in the mirror again and nodded when she finally saw them there.

“And just so you know, I never go there!” Ashlyn defended herself, wanting to set the record straight. 

“What were you doing there Wednesday anyway?” Meg’s brain was finally starting to function again and the question she had come back to ever since that day finally found its way to her lips.

“Oh, uh...” Ashlyn stammered. “Your mom asked me to pick something up for her that had been delivered.”

“Why didn’t she just ask me to get it though?”

“I, umm...” the blonde looked anxiously at her wife.

“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t there” Ali giggled.

“Oh fuck it” Ashlyn rolled her eyes. Maybe she was drunk on the relief that was washing over all of them as the stress between she and Meg was finally dissipating, but she just didn’t care about keeping Hannah’s secret anymore. “It’s something for you, that’s why. But don’t ask me what it is because I don’t know.”

“After all that, she left it there too!” Ali laughed again and was soon joined by both women.

“Oh, it’s my birthday present I’ll bet” Meg surmised after a minute.

“Maybe, maybe not” Ashlyn shrugged and grinned, knowing only that it was something for the new house. “But, listen, uh...I am really sorry for intruding. I was just trying to run in and out real fast so I could get to Winchester, and I hadn’t eaten lunch yet so I wasn’t my best, and I just...oh, hell Meggie, I just wish I’d been smarter or something. I don’t know. I’m sorry honey.”

Ali smiled as she watched the two keepers exchanging small grins, their cheeks still pink, their eyes still a little hesitant. Just to make sure they didn’t backslide into avoidance and awkwardness again, she dove back into the fray.

“Well now you know Ashlyn’s dirty little secret” the brunette said conspiratorially, her eyes dancing with mischief in the mirror.

“What dirty little secret?” Meg furrowed her brow quizzically.

“Don’t you dare...” the blonde warned her wife, turning pale.

“I think it’s only fair babe. She has a right to know now...” Ali teased.

“Know what? What’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing, just that Ashlyn has this thing for walking in on people who are having sex” the brunette explained and was surprised at how long she was able to keep a straight face.

“What?!” Meg’s eyes bugged out.

“Ali! What the fuck?!”

“It’s true” Ali laughed. “It’s not just you. I too have been walked in on by this pervert here” she pointed her thumb towards her sweet keeper and giggled again. “It was before we got together, obviously. But so has Whitney. So has Niki...”

“What?!!” Meg looked horrified but then started to laugh from deep in her belly. “No way. What’s the deal man?” she reached over and poked Ashlyn’s closest shoulder. “What kind of kink is that?!”

“It’s not a kink! I don’t do it on purpose...Jesus Ali” Ashlyn’s face was red with outrage and embarrassment. “I just have really really bad luck is all...”

“Mmmmhmmm...” Meg teased. “Whatever.”

Both Meg and Ali were laughing out loud at Ashlyn’s distress and it was pissing the blonde off.

“If we’re gonna talk about kinks then wait’ll you hear this one!” Ashlyn began boldly.

Insert ear-splitting record scratch.

“I will pull this car over and leave you on the side of this highway if you say one more word” dark chocolate eyes glared at the blonde who squinted back in confusion.

“Uh, yeah that’s TMI” Meg made an eek face and wished they could rewind the conversation by about 90 seconds.

“Oh my God, you should see your face honey” Ashlyn laughed and pointed at her wife who was now the person with the reddest face in the vehicle. “I wasn’t even talking about you!” the blonde slapped her hand down on her own thigh and laughed even harder. 

There was an awkward moment as Ashlyn’s laughter died down and Ali’s anger was replaced by mortification. Meg felt bad because the fight that was brewing between the two of them had all started because Ali was just trying to help she and Ashlyn to get over themselves.

“So, um...I’m glad you made us do this Al. Thank you” the redhead spoke up almost hopefully. She would revisit Wednesday’s embarrassment if it helped ease the tension between Ali and Ashlyn right at that moment. “I should have just talked to you about it that night Ash. I wasn’t sure if you were mad at me. And I felt stupid. And...”

“I appreciate you saying that kiddo” Ashlyn turned sideways in her seat to look back at her beloved Meggie. “But I’m the grown-up, or the parent anyway. It’s my job to do that, to make sure we talked about it and that it wasn’t weird.”

They smiled at each other while Ali sat stock still, focused on the road in front of her and the darkening sky around them.

“Are we good?” Ashlyn asked with a grin.

“We’re good” Meg agreed with her own bright smile and nod.

“Good” the blonde nodded back. “And, just so you know” she lowered her voice even though she wanted both other women to hear her clearly, “she doesn’t even have any kinks” she pointed at Ali and shrugged. “She’s dying of embarrassment now because she thinks you think she does. So, just to clear the air...she does not.”

“Still TMI, but thanks for clarifying.”

“Happy to help” Ashlyn winked and then grinned, hoping her cute adorableness would keep her out of trouble with her beautiful brunette.

“You can breathe again now honey” Ashlyn leaned over and pressed a kiss into her wife’s shoulder. “I fixed it.”

Ali gave her a harsh sideways glance and tried not to smile at Ashlyn’s antics. That woman could charm her out of almost any bad mood. Even one that involved the possible accidental disclosure that she did indeed have a hot kink.

“We’re all fixed now” Meg added, cheerfully. “All good.”

Ashlyn felt bad and when her wife still hadn’t said anything after another minute, she tried another tactic.

“We got walked in on by Grandma once” the blonde offered with a blush and a rueful grin.

“You did not!” Meg’s eyes went wide. “Shut up!” she cackled gleefully. “When? How?”

Ashlyn kept an eye on her beautiful brunette’s face while the redhead reacted to her revelatory statement and was relieved to see a small smile there. Ashlyn knew she had gone down the right path and decided to keep going.

“Oh God, how long ago was that honey?” the blonde chuckled as she tried to come up with the date. “It was the first day of school...I remember that...and Deb surprised us with lunch...”

“It was when the twins started preschool” Ali sighed wistfully. “We were both freaked out because all four little guys were in school for the first time” she chuckled. 

“Oh yeah” Ashlyn smiled and glanced back to see Meg grinning too. “That day really threw us both for a loop.”

“They were 4 then?” Meg asked carefully. She wanted some more clarity but was not interested in any real details. “Is that when preschool is?”

“Yep” Ali nodded, her smile getting bigger. “So almost 7 years ago...”

“How the hell are they gonna be 11 this year?” Ashlyn shook her head and chuckled. 

“Wait...” Meg scrunched her face up as she processed more of the conversation. “Grandma brought you lunch and walked in on you?” she laughed loudly again. 

“She did” Ali nodded solemnly and then rolled her eyes and sighed in regret. 

“So you weren’t in your bedroom then huh?” she smirked, enjoying the moment immensely.

Ashlyn and Ali exchanged a helpless look.

“Hey, at least we weren’t on Deb’s damned desk!” Ashlyn retorted, trying to save some of their honor which she felt was under playful attack.

“You guys always say how careful you are about being in your room” Meg teased with another laugh. “But both Grandma and I have walked in on you...”

“Oh Jesus, here we go” Ali groaned and would have covered her face with her hands had she not been driving.

“Have the other kids been traumatized like I was yet, or...” the redhead teased, grinning so big her cheeks actually hurt.

That time when 11-year old Meg saw Ashlyn and Ali in a compromising position on the couch in the front living room was something all three women had talked about and joked about together in the past. They hadn’t been having sex but they had been enjoying a steamy make-out session that had escalated to Ashlyn’s mouth on her wife’s exposed breasts and Ali’s hand between her keeper’s legs. All in plain view. 

“Oh come on!” Ashlyn turned to face the young woman, playfully outraged by the accusation. “We were fully clothed and nothing even happened!”

“If it was so innocent why did we end up having the whole sex talk that night then?!” Meg howled, enjoying the hell out of the offended look on Ashlyn’s face.

The two keepers bickered back and forth over just how traumatizing the incident could really have been and Ali listened with a nose-crinkling grin until she couldn’t take it anymore.

“The most traumatic thing that night was that you thought one of us was giving the other a blow job” the brunette’s voice drowned out the other two and then filled the minivan with loud laughter.

“Please tell me you got that figured out, finally!” Ashlyn joined in, watching the redhead’s face turn to horrified embarrassment.

Before Meg could even defend herself, Ali chimed in again.

“She did, she did” the brunette played it up with a smug smirk. “I checked on that back in high school, right Megski?” she winked into the mirror, just to let the young woman know she still loved her even through the roasting she was currently receiving.

“You guys are the worst” Meg shook her head and sighed heavily, knowing there was no way to defeat them both when they ganged up on her like that. “Unbelievable...” she muttered but couldn’t keep the small grin off of her face as she turned to look out the window.

Ashlyn watched the young woman’s reaction and took pity on her. She leaned over and gave her wife’s leg a squeeze and then a pat before trying to shift the focus away from Meg again.

“The granddaddy of all-time worst sexcapade interruptions was definitely Gram barging into our bedroom the morning after our rehearsal dinner” she chuckled.

Ali’s face blanched and she turned towards her wife with a horrified look.

“Grandma walked in on you guys twice?!” Meg’s eyebrows were up in surprise as she looked at Ashlyn. “Seriously?”

“No, not Grandma” the blonde giggled. “My Gram.”

“Oh...ok.”

“You probably don’t remember her much because she died when you were only 6...”

“I remember her a little” the redhead nodded as her brain worked hard to find those few but wonderful memories. “But I didn’t see her very much, did I?”

“No, you didn’t” Ashlyn sighed but had a loving smile on her face. “She was incredible...”

“Amazing. One of the best people God ever put on this planet” Ali added with her own wistful smile.

“Well you didn’t think she was that great that morning in our bedroom” Ashlyn chuckled as images from that day flooded her mind.

“Yeah, I’m gonna need to hear this one” Meg leaned as far forward as she could, trying to get her head between the two front seats. “Just, you know, don’t kill me with the sex stuff” she made an eek face. 

“Well we had everybody there for the rehearsal dinner, you and your mom were staying with us too” Ashlyn started to set the scene but didn’t get far before Ali interrupted her.

“Um, no...it wasn’t our wedding weekend” she shook her head and gave her wife a disbelieving but giggly ‘what the fuck’ face. “It was the morning after our bachelorette party...our Jill and Jill...”

“Oh Jesus! You’re right baby” Ashlyn laughed. “Damn. This is what happens when you get old” she winked back at Meg.

“It was the weekend before 4th of July...” Ali set the stage.

“Yeah, and the Horribles Parade was that day and we were tired because of the party the night before...” Ashlyn picked up the story.

“Which was amazing” Ali interjected with a giggle. “Best Jill and Jill party ever!”

“It was pretty freaking cool” Ashlyn agreed with her own boastful grin. “We were having a little morning-after sex” she wagged her eyebrows, making both women groan.

“Her whole family was staying with us. Gram, Mike, Tammye, Chris, Beth...” the brunette added, filling in some blanks that would explain what happened next in the story.

“And Beth was, what...” Ashlyn paused to think hard again, “...7 months pregnant? Maybe 8?”

“She was really pregnant” Ali agreed with a nod. “And she had to pee really bad, and the other bathrooms were all busy...”

“So here comes Gram, my 80-something year old grandmother, barging into the bedroom with no warning, and Beth practically cross-eyed from her full bladder waddling in behind her” Ashlyn chuckled at the memory, her face one big grin as she told the story.

“Oh my God” Meg’s jaw dropped. “They just, like, walked right in?”

“Yep” Ashlyn popped the p while Ali groaned again, knowing what was coming next.

“Well, were you...I mean...how much did she see...?” Meg couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It did indeed put her embarrassing encounter with Ashlyn that week into better perspective.

“She didn’t see much because I pulled the sheet up pretty quick. But, you know...we were both naked and sprawled out on the bed...together...doing things...”

“She gets it Ash. Move it along” Ali rolled her finger in a circle towards her wife, gesturing with her right hand. She was embarrassed but she had to admit she enjoyed participating when Ashlyn teased the redhead about their sex life.

“Well, that’s the really funny part. My super shy wife wouldn’t come out from underneath the sheet” the blonde giggled gleefully. She loved telling this story and she just didn’t get to do it very often.

“Umm, ok...wow” Meg made another eek face. “TMI again...”

There was an awkward pause.

“No!” Ali shook her head vigorously and sat bolt upright in the driver’s seat. “My head was on her chest! Not...someplace else...”

“What?” Ashlyn seemed confused by the clarification until she played her own words back in her head. “Oh, yeah” she laughed. “But no” she shook her head and winked at Meg. “Her head was not between my legs...at that particular moment.”

“Ashlyn!”  
“Okaaaay...”

Ali and Meg both spoke at the same time, reacting exactly as Ashlyn knew they would - Ali’s blushing giggle and Meg’s horrified jaw drop.

“What?” the blonde feigned ignorance as she received a well-deserved but playful swat from her wife.

“Just...” Ali began, flustered but still chuckling. Her face was beet red and she wore a smile that was half playful outrage and half adorably in love. “Wrap this up, please. Neat and tidy” she quirked her eyebrow at the love of her life who was embarrassing the shit out of her right now.

“Fine” Ashlyn rolled her eyes but gave her wife’s leg another squeeze. “That wouldn’t have been so bad, right?” she looked questioningly at Meg who just nodded curiously back at her in reply. “No harm, no foul, nothing much to see here. But no. Gram stood there by the bathroom door the whole time Beth was in there peeing.”

“No...” Meg gasped and covered her mouth. “She just...stood there?”

“No, she decided to make conversation with us!” Ali added with a loud laugh.

“Well, I wouldn’t really call it conversation” Ashlyn chuckled. “Gram and I talked a bit but this one” she pointed at the blushing brunette, “she never moved a muscle” she laughed out loud at the memory. “It was so freaking funny Meg. I swear to God.”

Ashlyn took pity on her wife and left out the details about the audible and mortifying noises that they had all heard during that unplanned visit with Gram.

“I’m glad you thought it was funny” Ali rolled her eyes again. “It was the longest 5 minutes of my entire life. And then I had to spend the rest of the week with everybody knowing all about it.”

“Oh no” Meg gave Ashlyn a serious frown. “You didn’t tell everybody, did you?”

“It wasn’t me” the blonde replied quickly. “I don’t have a deathwish. Are you crazy?”

“That day...” Ali took a deep breath before continuing...”was the worst” she chuckled and shook her head sadly. “I mean, we had fun at the parade and everything, but I was mortified and my fucking brother kept bringing it up every 15 minutes.”

“Oh my God Meg, talk about a deathwish!” Ashlyn cackled. “Kyle kept poking at her all damned day until she finally snapped and almost took the skin off of his body with the hose!”

The blonde took a minute to explain the rest of the day and how Ali had finally confronted her brother while they were out in the backyard with the puppies and the garden hose. Before too long, all three women in the minivan were laughing hysterically at that story and several others from that family visit in preparation for the wedding that would happen some 6 weeks later. They talked about how Kyle’s relationship with Nico ended and the beginnings of more than friendship had begun with Nathan. They laughed but ultimately praised Mike and Chris Harris for finding a way to be comfortable with Nathan and his very gay friends on the Esplanade for the Boston Pops 4th of July celebration a few days later. It had also been the visit when Chris and Beth asked Ashlyn and Ali to be Johnny’s godparents, and when Tammye had regaled them all with stories about what it had been like to grow up in that big old house. 

“So the moral of the story is that you’ll get over this little awkwardness with Ash” Ali spoke into the mirror with a warm smile. “If I could find a way past it with Gram...”

“And with Deb” Ashlyn added with a giggle.

“And with my mom” the brunette added with a sigh, “ then you guys don’t have anything to worry about. Ok?”

“Yeah, ok” Meg agreed with a pleased smile.

“You’re right, baby” Ashlyn nodded and smiled too.

What had originally seemed like it would be a painfully awkward ride back up to Gloucester had turned out to be one of the best trips any of the three women involved would enjoy for the rest of their lives. And no unwelcome sexual details had been shared either – which was seen as a major victory by both sides.

//

After a lovely evening with Ken, Vicki, Koty, Brianna, and Tori, the young Krieger family was alone again in the big old house. All in all, it had been a very good Sunday for everybody, including the dogs who had enjoyed lots of extra attention from the visitors. Meg had one more day and two more nights to spend with her family before going back to school on Tuesday. She couldn’t believe how quickly the time had gone by that month. It felt like just yesterday she was finishing up her final exams before Christmas and now here it was January 22nd already. How did time move so fast? As a nearly 22-year old college senior, Meg was starting to understand what every adult had told her all of her young life. ‘Every year will go by faster and faster so quit wishing for life to speed up.’ It was true and she was finally old enough and mature enough to appreciate the sentiment. Meg would have given almost anything to slow things down now. She wished for more time with the kids when they were younger. She wished for more time with Ashlyn and Ali in the big old house. She wished for more time at college with her teammates and friends. She wished for more time with Charlie. She wished for so many things that her brain started to hurt that night as she helped Ashlyn clean up the kitchen. 

The blonde had sent Ali up to bed early because the brunette was still tired from her exhaustive week, and late night the night before. Ali had also admitted to not feeling great and both moms were hoping to nip whatever might be brewing in the bud. 

The house at 9:45pm was quiet as the two keepers worked together in the kitchen. The dogs slept on the tile floor nearby – always close enough to keep a watchful eye on their humans if necessary. But both dogs were exhausted from playing all afternoon and evening with Sadie, Frankie’s sister whom Vicki had adopted at the same time Ashlyn had come home with Frankie. Ashlyn and Meg chatted easily about how big Tori was getting – the toddler would turn 2 years old in a few weeks, and how good Koty seemed to be doing, and how happy Vicki appeared to be with her family situation. Everything was good with her husband and both of her sons. Tanner had proposed to Renee during the holidays so Vicki even had another wedding to look forward to in the next year or so. 

Meg got quiet just as they were finishing up and Ashlyn noticed. She gave the redhead a couple of minutes before checking in with her. 

“Grandpa freaked you out didn’t he” the blonde hung the damp dish towel on the dish rack to dry out as she turned to face the rest of the long kitchen and Meg.

“Huh?” Meg stood up from the refrigerator with the two bottles of beer Ashlyn had asked her to fetch for them.

“Come on, let’s sit for a few minutes” Ashlyn nodded towards the family room and took a seat in one of the two small but comfy armchairs facing the fireplace there.

The last bits of the fire they had enjoyed all evening in the big double-sided fireplace between the kitchen and the family room were struggling to survive as the two keepers sat to watch those dying embers lose that battle. The dogs dutifully got up and took new positions near their humans, lying down again with soft groans and yawns. Ashlyn and Meg sipped their beers for a minute before the blonde spoke again.

“I saw your face when he talked about the draft next year. This time next year you’ll be a draft pick of some lucky and smart NWSL team” Ashlyn’s face was full of love and pride as the fading fire light danced across it.

“Yeah, maybe” Meg replied thoughtfully, but didn’t say much else.

“It’s a lot to think about kiddo, but don’t you dare doubt it. It’s gonna happen” Ashlyn watched the young woman’s face, smiling at her as Meg blinked back.

“I hope so” she shrugged shyly. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much...you know, just in case it doesn’t happen”. She continued quickly, knowing the next sentence that would leave her mom’s mouth. “And I know that if I don’t get drafted it doesn’t mean I can’t work my way onto a team. I know.”

“Honey, look at me” Ashlyn leaned to her right, towards the chair the redhead was sitting in next to her. Once Meg lifted her eyes, the blonde continued. “I’m telling you this as somebody who played in the league, who works in the league, who talks about this shit for a living...” she paused for effect. “You are gonna get drafted next January. I have no doubt in my mind. None whatsoever.”

“Thanks” she smiled softly and sincerely.

“Don’t thank me. You’re the one who did all the hard work, who’s still doing all the hard work. I’m so fucking proud of you Meg...” Ashlyn’s voice broke as her emotions choked her throat.

Ken Krieger knew too. That’s why he had made the comment in the first place during dinner. He was just as excited about Meg entering the NWSL draft as he had been about Tanner and the MSL draft back in January 2024. Nothing got the former pro player more excited than having one of his offspring, one of his students – because Ken would always be a soccer coach, no matter what else he was to you additionally, join him in the professional ranks. It was a dream come true for him and he was optimistic that Dodge might also one day join the elite members of the family who had become professional athletes. But with that expectation and anticipation came pressure. Nobody wanted to let Ken down. Nobody wanted to let their step-dad or their Grandpa down by not getting drafted or by not earning a spot on a professional team.

Ashlyn hadn’t had to endure that unique kind of pressure. She didn’t have anybody in her family who had accomplished nearly as much as she had in her career, even just her college career. Nobody had been pressuring her to play Division 1 soccer in college. Nobody had pressured her to get drafted and play professionally. Hell, the women’s league itself at the time, the WPS, was barely holding on. Nobody had any expectations for it or for Ashlyn Harris from Satellite Beach, Florida.

But it was different up here in Krieger country. Neither Tanner nor Meg had the Krieger last name but they had the Krieger mentality and the Krieger training and along with that came the Krieger mystique. They had those things working for them as well as adding to the pressure. It was part of the reason Ashlyn had lobbied so hard to get Ali to agree to let her take the Krieger name when they married. Being a Krieger in New England meant something in the soccer world. Ken was an enormously respected coach with a professional background and deep ties with the US National team program, on many different levels. Ali Krieger was one of the best high school soccer players in the state of Massachusetts and her early fame and notoriety added to the Krieger soccer legacy. Ashlyn had no doubt that Ali would have gone on to play professional soccer if her college career hadn’t been heartbreakingly cut short by injury. 

But there was pressure being a Krieger athlete. Part of Koty Wild’s dark turn into addiction halfway through college had been because of his inability to make the BC soccer team. No-one would ever truly know how much of it was due to the pressure of living up to the Krieger name he shared even obliquely because of his mother. Along those same lines, how much of Kyle Krieger’s tragic struggles when he was a young man were because of the pressure and expectations he carried in his last name? He was nowhere near the athlete his younger sister had been and he had grown up largely in her successful shadow. The Krieger name could be heavy if you were an athlete.

But Ashlyn loved it – the legend, the mystique, the expectations, the pressure, the name and all it meant ...Krieger. She and Ali had talked about it long ago as well as more recently and neither of them saw it as anything but a positive. Ali had never felt any negative effects of trying her best to live up to her family’s name. She had thrived under that pressure and those expectations. They had driven her to work harder and be better and she hoped they would do the same for all of her children. If she ever began to doubt those beliefs, if she ever started to wonder if she was wrong about her take on the pressure and expectations, all she had to do was ask Ashlyn and the keeper would tell her the exact same thing because she felt the same exact way. They chose to raise their children to try and meet those challenges if they chose to pursue the family sport. Ali and Ashlyn would help their kids learn to let those expectations work for them, not against them. So far, so good.

Meg’s quiet voice finally spoke after giving Ashlyn a minute to collect herself.

“I just don’t wanna let him down, you know? Or any of you.”

“Oh Meggie, you could never let us down. Not me, not Ali, not your mom, not Grandpa...not any of us” she reached her long arm out and smiled when Meg met it halfway and took her hand, holding it softly and squeezing it every so often. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We’re all already so fucking proud of you.”

“Yeah?” she asked hesitantly, wanting to believe but still doubting just the tiniest bit.

“Yeah kiddo. A hundred percent” they shared a tender smile that grew over the next few seconds as their eyes met and held steady. “You’re the best of all of us – Krieger, Harris, Lanier, Christopher, Wild, Kimball, Scaglione, Dodge, Johnson, Burnham, Holatka...” she rattled off every family name she could think of off the top of her head. She paused and gave the redhead’s hand a strong squeeze. “But most important of all – Doucette.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anybody wants to relive some of the memories touched on in this chapter:  
> Meg walking in on A/A is Part 5, Ch 42  
> Deb walking in on A/A is Part 7, Ch 28  
> Gram walking in on A/A is Part 3, Ch 16  
> Ashlyn infamously walking in on Ali & Sarah is Part 1, Ch 41
> 
> And hell yeah to the USWNT beating Canada on Sunday!!!  
> It was awesome to see Ali get another full 90 at CB, and even better to see her still look so good against a much better team. She made a couple of bad passes but her teammates bailed her out, just like she does for them all the time in return. And she shut down the world's best scorer - Christine Sinclair. Ali had her all game long and the bitch (I used to love Sinc but after the dirty elbow to Ali's eye I hate her now - I can't stand dirty players), didn't score, did she??? No she did not. I hope Ali showed Vlatko how valuable she is on that backline. She can come in and play any position back there against any kind of competition at any level and on the biggest stages. She's gotta make that Olympic roster. I just can't imagine anybody being a better defensive sub off the bench (if she doesn't start! she's played well enough to win a starting spot in my opinion). Vlatko talked about her leadership and her professionalism and it's obvious that he appreciates what she has to offer to the team. I hope she's earned her spot. It sure looks like it from out here. Fingers crossed!


	8. Ali

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is - the final chapter of this new 'Week in the Life' Installment.  
> I hope you like it.  
> And, to be clear and so you can read this and enjoy it for what it is, there is no foreshadowing about Ali's health going on here in this chapter. I promise. So just relax and enjoy.  
> The next big installment, Part 16, will be coming up next with lots of big events and twists and turns and teenage angst. Buckle up.

Ali Krieger felt something soft and warm on her cheek, and then her jaw, and then her temple. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt lovely and she wanted more. It felt so much better than the dull ache in her back and the slow but heavy throbbing in her head. She was curled up tight on her left side and she was aware that she had been in that same position for a long time. Her body was stiff and her throat was dry. She tried to push those feelings away and focus on the good stuff, closing her eyes tighter...where did the good stuff go?

“Don’t wake up...” Ashlyn’s soft, sweet voice sounded right next to the brunette’s ear and was followed by another lovely, warm kiss there too.

Yes. Good stuff. Ali snuggled into the pillow with a little groan that revealed some of her discomfort. She felt a cold, damp spot there, near her mouth, and inched her head back away from it with a frown. Tell-tale drool from a hard sleep. No, no, no...that’s not the good stuff.

“I’ll be right back” her sweet keeper’s voice was accompanied by another warm kiss, this time by the corner of her mouth. “Just taking the twins to school” Ashlyn said quietly as she stood next to Ali’s side of the bed, bent over her ailing wife with concern. She tried not to touch her because she wanted the brunette to sleep for as long as possible that morning. But it was hard to resist her. “Don’t wake up, baby” she purred into her ear. “Go back to sleep.”

It wasn’t until nearly 10am that Ashlyn went back upstairs and she did it only because she was worried about her beautiful brunette. Ali had gone to bed at 9:30pm last night, right after the kids. As far as the keeper could tell, her wife had barely moved a muscle in the 12-1/2 hours since. Ashlyn hated to wake the brunette, but there were basic needs that had to be addressed. Full bladder, water, food, coffee. How the hell was Ali going this long without caffeine in her system? It was with those concerns that the keeper went back to her wife’s bedside and sat as gently as possible on the edge of the bed.

“Hey sugarplum” she tenderly brushed some hair off of Ali’s forehead, noting that it wasn’t clammy or sweaty. A very good sign. “How you feeling baby?” her voice was soft and sweet and she pressed a gentle kiss to Ali’s cool cheek. Another good sign. She let her hand pet the brunette head and then lightly rub down her neck, shoulder, and arm, which was still snuggled under the covers. “You ready to wake up yet?”

Ali moaned a little and blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to shake out of the grips of such a long, deep slumber. It wasn’t easy. The gentle good stuff helped though.

“I brought you some coffee” Ashlyn nodded towards the nightstand while she continued to let her hand travel across her wife’s back and arm and hip. “You must want some coffee” she said, but it was more of a question.

Ali felt like she was swimming up from a deep, dark hole in the bottom of the deepest, darkest trench in the deepest, darkest part of the ocean. She could see the surface in the distance and she could smell something wonderful that she knew instinctively would help her. But help her what? Where the fuck was she? She was so disoriented that she thought about stopping her swim altogether. She wasn’t even sure if she was going the right direction anymore. But then she heard Ashlyn’s voice again. It had sounded so far away before but now it was closer. She was getting closer. Ali kicked her strong legs even harder in an effort to jump start her swim upwards again. The pressure from being so deep made her head pound and her lungs ache but she kept going.

“Whoa, ok, ok” Ashlyn chuckled and stood up, out of the way of those damned legs that always seemed to be kicking out at her in the most intimate of moments. “Come on honey, it’s time to wake up” she frowned as she watched Ali’s face twist and contort. 

The brunette looked like she was in distress or maybe having a bad dream. Ashlyn’s mind spun as she tried to comprehend what was going on. For a moment she thought maybe Ali was having some kind of stroke, or a seizure or something. But before she could panic too much about that, her wife’s cinnamon eyes were open and filled with wary shock. 

“There you are” the keeper exhaled a relieved breath and sat on the bed again as Ali’s eyes darted around for a frantic few seconds. “You’re ok baby. You were having a dream or...something. You’re ok” she soothed with her words and her hand again. “Just take a deep breath for me.”

Ali was confused as hell when she finally opened her eyes. One second she was swimming with every ounce of strength and energy she had towards the far-away surface and her keeper’s sweet voice. And then the next second she was in her bed with Ashlyn standing right next to her. It didn’t make any sense. The only thing that was the same was the way her body felt. Her back was sore. Her lungs were screaming at her. Her head felt like it was about to crack open from the pressure and pain inside. And then there was a new sensation that was just as powerful – her bladder was about to explode. Ali sat up so quickly that Ashlyn had to jump up again to get out of the way or they would have smashed their heads together.

“Take it easy honey” she yelped as another concerned frown creased her face. “Slow down. You’re ok...”

“Hafta...” Ali’s ragged voice sounded nothing like her own, “...pee...” 

Ashlyn had heard her wife’s voice in every way shape or form it had ever been, but she had never heard it like this. It sounded like the result of the worst bout of strep throat coupled with the worst hangover and then multiplied by the longest, most sleepless night of their lives. Before the keeper could process what any of that meant, Ali pushed the covers off and tried to spring out of bed. She didn’t get very far though. She lost her balance almost immediately and almost fell into the fireplace next to her side of the bed.

“Al, now come on” Ashlyn’s firm voice sounded. She was trying to be patient with her wife who was clearly not feeling 100 percent that morning, but enough was enough. “Slow down or you’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“Hafta pee” she said again, her voice only a bit more human than the moment before.

“Let me help you then...”

Ashlyn didn’t wait for permission. She grabbed Ali and put her own strong, right arm behind the brunette’s back and under her armpit. The keeper got worried again when she felt her wife give almost all of her body weight to her.

“Can you walk?” Ashlyn was veering back towards panic again by the way Ali was acting.

Thankfully, the brunette could walk after standing upright for a few seconds and did so at a quick pace around the foot of the bed, leaning heavily into her keeper because she couldn’t walk a straight line to save her life. She felt like she was walking directly towards the master bathroom but she knew by the way the blonde was pushing hard against her that she was not.

“Dizzy...” she rasped as they got into the bathroom.

Ali heard her wife yelp and then swear loudly along the way but she didn’t understand what was going on. All she knew was that she was about to empty her entire bladder all over the floor if they didn’t get a move on, and fast.

“Here, here...” Ashlyn’s urgent voice broke her thoughts and Ali felt strong hands pull her pajama pants down as everything tilted and she felt like she might throw up from dizziness. The keeper ignored the pain of her stubbed toe from the dresser near the foot of the bed and her bashed elbow from the bathroom doorway and made sure they arrived safely at their destination.

Ashlyn pulled her wife’s pants down and turned her around so she could sit on the toilet at the same time, and very quickly, which is why Ali felt so nauseous. The brunette held onto her wife tightly, unable to regain even a little of her equilibrium. It wasn’t until she felt the cool toilet seat beneath her thighs that she knew she had made it to her urgent destination.

“Go ahead honey, I’ve got you” Ashlyn encouraged once she got her wife seated on the toilet. It hadn’t been the smoothest landing but they had hit the target and that was all that mattered. “You can pee now. Go ahead. I’ve got you.”

Ashlyn stood in front of her wife, still holding her under her arms while Ali leaned against her. The brunette’s head was turned to the side and pressing into Ashlyn’s stomach while she finally emptied her bladder. They stayed in that position for several minutes and the keeper experienced a moment of déjà vu. She flashed back to the time she had found Ali passed out on the bathroom floor of her old house in Stoneham. It had been early in their relationship and Ashlyn had helped her beautiful brunette use the toilet while she was still out of her mind with fever and barely able to hold her own head up. It was the first time the keeper truly understood what it meant to be in love with someone. Really, truly, unconditionally, madly in love. 

This strange experience on Monday morning reminded Ashlyn of that April day back in 2016, but this time the brunette wasn’t hot and sweaty and feverish. The other obvious difference was that Ashlyn’s feelings of true love for Ali had only deepened and expanded over those 18 years. 

“What the fuck?” the brunette’s hoarse, ragged voice sounded out each word slowly, one at a time as she finished peeing. 

It was the most lucid thing Ashlyn had heard her say so far that day. 

“You tell me, zombie queen” she chuckled and released her grip under her wife’s arms. She moved both hands to Ali’s back and started slowly rubbing it as the brunette took a couple of deep breaths. “Are you ok?”

Ali sat upright, mostly under her own steam, and blinked a few times as she checked in on her body and mind and overall well-being. She held onto Ashlyn’s hips in front of her with both hands, just in case. Her keeper’s hands felt incredible on her back. Good stuff.

“Al?” 

“Yeah” she winced at the pain in her throat and then hacked up some nasty phlegm from the depths there.

Ashlyn quickly handed her the small trash can next to the toilet and tried not to be grossed out by the spitting that followed. At least it wasn’t vomit.

“Better?” the keeper tried again, still waiting for some kind of feedback from her wife.

“Yeah. Ew, gross” Ali wrinkled her nose at the trash can and took it from her wife’s hand, returning it to the floor next to her. “Sorry.”

“Are you...do you want me to leave?” Ashlyn asked with an adorably shy look on her face. She knew her wife still liked privacy in the bathroom sometimes.

“What?” the brunette looked up into those beautiful hazel eyes she loved so much, confused by the question. “No. I don’t trust myself to stand up yet” she chuckled, voice still rough but much better now. She surprised them both by finding humor in her present situation. “What the hell happened to me last night?”

“Oh man, if I wasn’t so freaked out by what just happened, I’d have a field day with that one” Ashlyn sighed and giggled once she heard her wife do the same. She couldn’t be having a seizure or a stroke and be giggling and talking to her like this, could she? 

“Ha ha, very funny” Ali tried to roll her eyes but the searing pain in her head stopped her cold in her tracks. “Ow, shit.”

“Your head hurts, doesn’t it?” Ashlyn asked as she reached out to give the brunette head a gentle, sympathetic caress.

“It fucking kills.”

“Well you’ve been asleep for over 12 hours and it’s after 10am and you haven’t had any coffee yet...”

“Coffee...” Ali sat up straighter and reached for the toilet paper now that her bladder was finally empty. 

“It’s on your nightstand...”

“Shit! It’s after 10:00am?!” the brunette’s anxiety level skyrocketed as she finished wiping and flushed the toilet behind her quickly. The sharp pain in her head made her slow way down though and close her eyes for a minute.

“Just take it easy honey” Ashlyn’s firm voice had a tinge of frustration in it for the first time that morning. 

“Work...” Ali said with her eyes still closed and one hand still holding onto her wife.

“Work is fine without you right now. I promise” Ashlyn explained patiently. “I texted Whit and Jared this morning and I talked to Marcy too.”

“You did?” bleary, pain-filled, chocolate eyes blinked up at the blonde.

“Sweetheart” Ashlyn tilted her head to the side and gave her wife a smile full of love and more than a little amusement. “You’re sick. Or your body’s trying really hard not to be sick. But you need a sick day, a real sick day.”

“But I missed so much time last week...”

“And the place is still running” Ashlyn leaned forward and kissed her wife’s pale, cool forehead. “You can miss one more day. Please baby, take your own advice for once, will you?”

“Mmmm...” Ali closed her eyes and tried to quell the rising stress by focusing on her wife’s soft lips. Yes please, more good stuff.

//

Ali did take her own advice and stayed home sick that day. She didn’t really feel sick, but she was definitely not well either. The only real ailment she had, once she had emptied her bladder and had some coffee, was a splitting headache. She had slept for 12 hours and her body was sore from that, but otherwise it was ok. Her stomach was fine. Her breathing was fine - there was no congestion in her chest or nose. Even her painful throat had been a side effect from sleeping for so long. Their official mom diagnosis was that Ali’s exhaustive last week had finally caught up to her and her body had insisted on shutting down for a good long rest last night. It had happened in the past, to both moms. If they were starting to feel rundown they went to bed early and caught up on some sleep and were able to chase the oncoming illness away. It wasn’t a foolproof plan but it did occasionally work. And Ashlyn had to admit that her wife did seem much better once she had woken up and snapped out of her fog.

After getting back into bed and having some of her coffee, Ali tried to explain the weird waking dream she’d had earlier to her wife. But, as so often happens with most dreams, it didn’t make any sense to either of them. 

“It does explain the vicious kicks though” Ashlyn chuckled, bravely taking her seat on the edge of the bed again. It would take more than those mule legs of Ali’s to keep her away.

The blonde brought up a late breakfast or an early lunch for her wife, hoping to fill her gas tank and help her combat the headache that was not going away. She brought Ali all the things they normally used to treat a serious headache. Caffeine, water, food, sugar, Tylenol, more water. Repeat as necessary. Now all there was to do was wait and hope one of the remedies worked.

“Just rest your head ok?” Ashlyn spoke softly and gently pressed a kiss to her wife’s lips at 10:45am. She had moved Ali over to her own side of the bed to give her body a fresh spot to lay in as well as to be closer to the bathroom in case she required another urgent trip for any reason. “I’ve got an 11:30 video conference but I’ve gotta get on with Taylor at 11:15am” she explained as she quickly applied some make-up and somehow got her shaggy blonde hair looking perfect even without showering yet that morning. “But then I’ll come back and we can eat lunch and then I’ll help you shower” she rambled on as she sat at the dressing table near the foot of the bed. “Or we can shower first and then eat lunch, whatever you want.”

Ali followed her keeper’s every move as she finished with her make-up and hair and then moved to her dresser and closet at the other corner of the bed, near the door to the second floor. The whiskey-colored eyes were only half open because of the pain in her head, but they were not going to miss this show. It was rare that Ali got to watch Ashlyn get ready in the morning and she wasn’t passing up the chance because of a headache. She watched the blonde change out of the t-shirt and fleece she had worn for elementary school drop-off. Ashlyn kept the comfortable joggers on because the camera at the desk in the garage office would only show her from the chest up, maybe the waist up if she pushed her chair back far enough.

“Are you enjoying the show over there?” Ashlyn winked as she secured the bra clasp behind her back and slipped her arms into a pale blue dress shirt, leaving the top two buttons undone and making sure the collar was crisp and neat.

“MmmHmmm” Ali hummed because her head hurt too much to nod or speak. Even the small smile on her lips caused her pain but she couldn’t help it. Watching Ashlyn get dressed would always make her smile. The only thing better than watching her gorgeous keeper get dressed was watching her get undressed.

“Ok, listen you perv” Ashlyn giggled softly as she crossed back to Ali’s new bedside by the door to the backstairs, navy blue suit jacket hooked on her finger over her shoulder. “I’ll be back soon to check on you” she bent over and kissed the top of the aching brunette head ever so gently. “Please be smart and just rest, ok? And don’t scare me like that again.”

“Mmm-kay” Ali blinked instead of nodding. Lovely good stuff. “Love you.”

“I love you too, baby” Ashlyn replied with a loving smile before disappearing down the backstairs.

//

Meg knocked softly on the open master bedroom door, took a few steps into the room from the second-floor hallway, and peeked around the corner to see Ali propped up in Ashlyn’s spot with her eyes open but no glasses on her face. The redhead spoke quietly when she saw the small smile on Ali’s face directed her way.

“Hi honey” the brunette’s voice was soft and still a bit low.

“Ash texted me, her video thing is running long and she wanted me to check on you before we left” Meg walked to the bedside nearest Ali and was surprised to see her without her phone anywhere nearby.

“Aw, thanks” the sicko smiled again, happy that Meg was close enough now that she could actually see her. She knew it was Meg because of her height and hair color, and voice of course. “We?” Ali frowned gently.

“Charlie’s here...”

“Oh right” Ali nodded slowly and carefully. “I’m fine” she tried a bigger smile to convince the young woman. “You go on and enjoy yourselves. Doing anything fun?”

Meg talked quietly for a few minutes about potential plans she and her boyfriend had for the afternoon. Then she went down the backstairs to the kitchen and came back up with more water and an orange, which had sounded like an odd request but she didn’t question the brunette.

“Are you sure I can’t make you some lunch?” the redhead asked for the fourth time. “Ash said I can’t leave until you eat something...” she finally confessed in an attempt to get the stubborn brunette to accept her assistance.

“Oh geez, fine” Ali rolled her eyes, again being careful and hoping to avoid more pain in her head. “I’d love some soup. You can start that for me and I’ll just pee and then come down and eat it” she set forth her plan and reached for her glasses on the nightstand.

“Ummm...”

“I suppose I’m not allowed to do any of that by myself either, am I?” she would have sounded annoyed but she just didn’t have the energy to get there. Plus, she found it sweet how worried Ashlyn was about her.

“No” Meg shook her head as she watched the brunette struggle to keep her balance as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “But I think she’s got it right this time” the redhead furrowed her brow in concern. “Please just let me help you” she stood closer to the bed and put her hand on Ali’s elbow. “Please?”

There was no point in arguing so Ali decided to give in if for no other reason than she didn’t want to be the cause of any further delay for the young couple. The faster she let Meg help her, the sooner the redhead and Charlie could get on with their plans. Ali let Meg walk her to the toilet before going down to put a can of the brunette’s favorite soup on the stove top to heat up. And Ali promised not to try to walk downstairs until Meg came back – that was the deal. Truthfully, she was feeling better. Her head still hurt a lot but the pain wasn’t making her nauseous anymore. Progress. She was hopeful that wearing her glasses would also be pain free now.

It was hard not to see the similarities between Meg and Ashlyn as the redhead assisted the brunette down the backstairs. Meg had sweetly made sure Ali had socks and slippers on as well as her fuzzy fuchsia robe that usually never left the 2nd floor of the house. Then she had gotten the brunette set up in the nook at the back of the family room and brought her a big bowl of soup with crackers and Gatorade too.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Megski please” Ali gave her the biggest smile of her day so far. “You’ve done more than enough and I love you for it. But go away” she chuckled lightly as she blew on the spoonful of soup in front of her and then slurped it into her mouth with a quiet hum. It felt good on her throat even though it wasn’t officially sore anymore.

“Well your motor skills seem to be ok...” Meg teased. “And your appetite seems healthy as usual...”

“Here you go hon” Charlie walked up to the nook table and handed Meg a bean-bag type neck pillow. It was purple and smelled faintly lovely.

“Thanks” she smiled brightly at him and Ali found herself grinning at the loving look exchanged between the two young people too.

“Ah, you found it” Ali said as she leaned forward, allowing the redhead to place it around her neck, the ‘c’ shaped ends coming close together down near her throat.

“I’m telling you, Gwen’s mom swears by it. Something about the weight of it, and the lavender in there and...something else...I forget” she rolled her eyes at herself but kept on going. “All I know is it works.”

“Well I’ll give it a whirl, thank you” Ali sat up again and got back to her soup.

“It’s not too smelly though is it? Too strong? It’s not making you sick...”

“Nope, I love it. Not too strong at all. I always have lavender in my baths...”

Ah, maybe that’s why Meg had always found such comfort in the simple lavender concoction that was inside the neck pillow. She had never made the connection before but whether she was consciously aware of it or not, it was hard to smell lavender and not think of Ali.

“Go on” the brunette waved the couple away. “I’m gonna sit here and eat my soup and watch tv” she gestured towards the tv at the front of the family room that Charlie had turned on for her while Meg finished with the soup preparation. “And I promise I won’t go anywhere until Ash comes back in. Now go.”

The last sentence was a command and Meg took it as such. She and Charlie left, texting a quick update to Ashlyn on her way out the mudroom door. Ali finished her soup, moving slowly but feeling better with each spoonful, and then tried to focus on the tv screen. It was a large screen but it was a good distance away and she had trouble focusing on it. Before she could think too hard about it, she felt really tired again and curled up on her side on the banquette where she was sitting. She pulled her robe around her tightly, thankful for the warmth on the cold January day, and put her glasses on the table as she let her eyes close.

She tried to sleep but her brain kept thinking about things and making that difficult. She thought about a series of wide-ranging topics. She was still annoyed that they had missed the first-ever 4-family vacation in its new Martin Luther King, Jr long weekend last weekend. Very few members of their 4-family group could make it up to the NH lake in August for a full week anymore so they had all agreed to change things up. They targeted the first long weekend of the year and decided to go skiing or someplace fun like that instead. It wouldn’t be the same as a week of vacation on the lake, but it would be better than nothing. That winter, as soon as the Fall camping season had ended in November, The Stacy Everett Lewis Academy had undergone its own renovation of sorts. It wasn’t a major overhaul by any means, but they had finally gone to the expense of winterizing all the buildings up there at the Academy so they could be rented out for winter snow season activities. It had been in the works for a couple of years and Ashlyn and Whitney had finally pulled the trigger on it. The 4-family long weekend vacation was the inaugural reservation and it had been a big success. 

They winterized the buildings but they didn’t heat them all – only a few at first. They wanted to make sure it was something that would take off before spending twice as much money on it. The Crosses, Dwyers, and Flanagans all enjoyed snowshoeing, cross country skiing, sledding, and other winter activities last weekend. Ashlyn’s NWSL draft and owners’ meetings made it impossible for her to join her family up in Greenfield, NH but Ali had planned to take the kids up by herself. That was until Josie’s District auditions fell on that Saturday. Drew’s basketball game on Sunday and Josie’s illness – the beginning of the plague – squashed any hopes of going up even for a day. No, Ali would just have to wait for next January and hope for better timing. She was still mad about it though as she lay there on the banquette seat trying to slip into sleep.

Then her mind shifted to work stuff and the changes going on at Knight-Harris. It was exciting and she was looking forward to growing their company, but it was also stressful and required a lot of work from her. Her protégé, Marcy Hopkins, the woman she had groomed to take over for her one day and run the whole operation, was ready to be her own boss now and Ali knew she couldn’t hold her back much longer. Jared Kimball, her brother-in-law in-law, is that how you said it? She wondered as her mind worked hard on the question. Jared had been itching to go do something different for a few years now and she just hoped they had found somebody, or three somebodies, who were talented enough to take over for him when he did decide to make his move. So many changes. But change was good and important and Ali knew that. She just didn’t like it right now. She really didn’t want to think about it right that moment. Thinking about work made her want her phone. She considered breaking her promise and going upstairs to try and find it. But there was no guarantee it was even in the house. If she knew her wife like she thought she did, Ashlyn had it with her in the garage loft. Ashlyn...now there was something she could think about. How lucky she was to have found the love of her life. How happy she was to be spending her life with that wonderful woman. How beautiful and special Ashlyn always made her feel...yeah, that was the good stuff she needed to put her mind at ease.

//

“So how are you feeling now?” Ashlyn’s cautious hazel eyes studied her wife’s reflection in the dressing table mirror about an hour later.

The keeper had come back into the house and had a mini heart attack when she couldn’t locate her wife right away. It hadn’t occurred to her that Ali might be sleeping on the banquette seat of the nook. Ashlyn had helped her back upstairs with the idea of putting her back in bed, but the brunette convinced her that a shower would make her feel so much better. Now the keeper was standing behind her wife and combing her wet locks out for her after the quick, all-business shower. Ashlyn had stood nervous vigil right outside the glass shower door, ready to jump in if anything looked awry.

“I feel much better babe, I keep telling you” Ali smiled adoringly up at her wife through the mirror. “I think I was just tired, overtired, whatever” she chuckled. “And then my body just didn’t like that I slept so long or something” she shrugged. “My head still hurts a little but it’s not bad.”

“Are you sure?” Ashlyn squinted as she tried to understand what was going on with her wife’s body and mind that day. “It doesn’t make sense...”

“Honey, I keep telling you this stupid pre-menopause stuff is ridiculous” Ali rolled her eyes, still not as whole-heartedly as she usually would because her head did indeed still hurt a bit. “Maybe crazy headaches is part of it. My freaking body just does whatever the hell it wants sometimes now. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Yeah but that’s just with your period though, right? I mean, I get that you’re missing a period once in a while, that kind of thing...”

“No, it’s not just that though” Ali reached up and put her hand on top of Ashlyn’s which was resting on her shoulder. She patted it and loved the way the keeper squeezed her back. “Patty says it’s like going through puberty again, only different, and we don’t know anywhere near as much about menopause as we do about puberty.”

“But we don’t even know that much about puberty...” Ashlyn looked concerned again.

“Exactly” Ali chuckled and then sighed. “I’ll talk to Patty about it. I’ll write it all down, you’ll have to help me though because I’m not even sure what went on this morning, and then I’ll talk to her.”

It was true. Ali would be turning 50 years old that July and she was experiencing some of the signs of pre-menopause that almost all middle-aged women went through. As Dr. Patty Comello had explained to the brunette several months earlier, menopause was when your body stopped ovulating and you stopped getting your period at all. But the years that led up to that moment were called pre-menopause or peri-menopause. The average age for menopause in American women was 52. Anytime in the decade before your last period, you could start going through pre-menopause. It was different for every woman, just as puberty was different for every teenager, but some of the biggest symptoms were fairly universal. Missing periods, really intense periods, feeling clumsy or like you’re walking around in a kind of a fog, lapses in memory, weight gain – particularly right around your middle, trouble with your vision, hot flashes, bouts of insomnia, general moodiness and mood swings, dry skin, and lots of bruises from the clumsiness and the skin changes. It was all hormone based, just like puberty, and it could be a wild ride, just like puberty. 

“I know you will because I’m going with you” Ashlyn nodded decisively. She caught what she thought was her wife’s best attempt at a sharp eyebrow quirk. “I want to learn about it too baby, I’m right there with you.”

Ashlyn was only one year younger than her wife but the blonde hadn’t really experienced any pre-menopause symptoms yet. Not that she had noticed anyway. But one of her colleagues at the MHI had started the pre-menopause rollercoaster in her mid-40s so there was no telling when it might hit.

“Easy for you to say with your normal periods and your body still doing what it’s always done” the brunette laughed and pulled her wife’s hand to her mouth and gave it a kiss. “I’ve been the last of my friends all my life – last one to grow, last one to get boobs, last one to get my period, and now here I am, first one to go through this part” she sighed. “Oh well. If there’s one thing I’m learning, it’s that your body’s gonna do what your body wants to do. It doesn’t matter how I feel about it.”

“I think Syd’s just not telling you” Ashlyn bent down and kissed the brunette’s head gently. “I think she’s in some kind of denial or something” she laughed softly and pressed a tender kiss into Ali’s cheek. 

“She better not be” Ali laughed softly again, loving the kiss – more good stuff. “I’ve been following her lead my entire life – she can’t leave me behind now.”

//

Josie was the first kid home from school that afternoon, unlocking and pushing the big red mudroom door open at 2:40pm. Each day could be different, depending on the daily extracurricular activities, but Drew’s high school day ended at 2:00pm and Josie’s middle school equivalent at 2:07pm. The bus ride home for each of them was about 20-30 minutes, roughly. It depended on how well-behaved the students were. If the driver and the volunteer monitor didn’t have to spend a lot of time correcting bad behavior then it was closer to 20 minutes. Dodge and Lily got out of elementary school at 2:30pm and Ashlyn brought them home before venturing back out for music lessons and sports practices again. That was a 10-minute drive. On rare occasions, Ashlyn and the twins made it back home before one of the big kids got off the bus and walked to the big old house. Both Drew and Josie knew where the spare key was hidden – back in Mama’s garden, and were more than capable of unlocking the door and surviving on their own for the 5 – 15 minutes before Ashlyn and the twins arrived. Just one more semester and then all three youngest Kriegers would be arriving home together from the Middle school bus. There was no debating which big kid would arrive home first that Monday afternoon because Drew had basketball practice at the high school from 3-5pm.

“Mom?” 12-1/2 year old Josie asked softly as she walked into the family room from the kitchen, Frankie trotting behind her. The redhead held a note in her hand from Ashlyn explaining that Mom wasn’t feeling good and asking her to be quiet when she came in that afternoon. The girl had her backpack slung over one shoulder and her cheeks were still pink from the cold air during her brisk 10-minute walk from the bus stop. “Are you sick?”

“Hi honey” Ali opened her eyes and smiled at the cute look of concern on Josie’s face. She really was a great kid. She had taken her coat and boots off in the mudroom just like she was supposed to. “No, I’m not sick. I just have a little headache, but I’m feeling much better.”

“Why are you sleeping with your glasses on?” Josie cocked her head.

“Oh I wasn’t really sleeping” Ali sighed and motioned for the girl to come closer. She was lying on the couch with her head at the far end near the wall and her right hand hung down, slowly petting Logan’s broad back in her spot on the floor next to the brunette. Ali wore comfy sweats and was covered by a soft, warm blanket. “Just resting my eyes a little.”

“You don’t look sick” Josie came closer and peered intently at her mother’s slightly pale face. She loved the warmth transferred from Ali’s hand to her own chilly one.

“That’s because I’m not sick” Ali chuckled. “Your hands are like ice” the brunette frowned as she used her other hand to squeeze both of her daughter’s. “Were you not wearing your gloves?” her words were full of concern but with no hint of nagging or chastising.

“No, I was” Josie nodded as her backpack slid down her arm. “It’s just cold out” she shrugged and pulled her hands away before walking into the dining room and dropping her backpack on the table there with a heavy thud.

The tender moment was gone as quickly as it had arisen, but Ali was trying to learn to appreciate them, no matter how brief, instead of focusing on the dwindling number of them. She knew it was only going to get worse and was doing her best to get used to the changing norms. The brunette watched her daughter walk back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room with pit stops in the bathroom and the pantry over the next 10 minutes. Frankie followed her, waiting hopefully for a piece of whatever Josie was having for a snack to fall to the floor. Logan watched carefully, her head raised and turning from one room to the next, but she never left Ali’s side. The girl finally settled into the dining room to get her homework started, still preferring to get it done and out of the way as soon as possible.

“But I don’t know why she couldn’t come here!” Lily’s yell from the mudroom filled the first floor with loud frustration.

“Mama already told you a hundred times” Dodge shook his head and frowned at his twin as they both dropped their backpacks to the floor so they could remove their outerwear. “Seriously Wee?”

“But she didn’t say why though” the young blonde stomped her foot and threw her coat against the mudroom wall hooks instead of hanging it up as she was supposed to.

“That’s enough!” Ashlyn yelled as quietly as she could when she finally joined them in the mudroom, arriving at the same time Frankie did from the dining room. “I’m not telling you again young lady” she bent over and gave Lily her sternest look, her words harsh and hushed. “We’re having a quiet day today and that means no visitors. You can see Tahlia tomorrow at school.”

“But that’s not fair...” Lily began, outrage on her face and in her voice.

Dodge shook his head and gave his sister a warning grimace because they both knew that Ashlyn wasn’t in a negotiating mood. The keeper had told them both on the drive home that Mom had stayed home today and wasn’t feeling great and they were all going to relax and have a nice, easy afternoon and night. There might even be pizza or Chinese food involved if all went well. But Lily couldn’t contain herself. She wasn’t a kid who liked to argue but she often had a hard time letting something go, especially if she felt like she had been wronged or treated unjustly. 

“Ok, up to your room” Ashlyn commanded, pointing her long arm towards the front stairs and gritting her teeth to stop from saying more. “Now!”

It took Lily 5 minutes of carrying on, crying, and whining about how mean Ashlyn was to not even let her get her after school snack before she stomped her way upstairs. The first floor was finally quiet after the girl slammed her bedroom door so hard the whole house shook.

“God, she’s so loud” Dodge muttered and rolled his eyes at his sister’s histrionics.

Ali tried not to laugh when she saw how stressed out both her wife and son looked as they came into the family room to greet her.

“I’d ask how the ride home went, but I already have my answer” she giggled as she hugged Dodge. “You ok?” she asked her keeper softly when Ashlyn bent over to kiss her forehead – another dash of the good stuff.

“Fabulous” the blonde rolled her eyes. “Sorry about that.”

“You know the harder you try to make them be quiet the louder they’re going to be” Ali grinned and closed her eyes as her wife felt her forehead again. 

“You don’t feel warm. You’re really not sick are you?” Ashlyn still couldn’t believe it after witnessing the complete discombobulation of her wife earlier that morning.

“I’m really not” the brunette replied with a slightly frustrated sigh. “I keep telling everybody that but you’re still treating me like an invalid” she sighed again and chuckled. “Do you finally believe me?”

“Maybe” Ashlyn pursed her lips and studied her beautiful brunette again. “Maybe.”

//

In an attempt to change the scenery and chase the last bits of her headache away, Ali decided to take the dogs for a walk at 3:30pm. She coerced both twins into joining her, much to Ashlyn’s consternation. The keeper just wanted her wife to be still and quiet that day. It was obvious that her body was trying to send her a message and it annoyed Ashlyn that Ali wouldn’t listen. Thankfully, the dog walking expedition returned home after only 20 minutes, but it had been a good experience for all five walkers. Both twins settled into their homework easily after the excursion and Ali’s head felt even better than before. 

Josie’s private piano teacher, Mr. Kershaw, arrived promptly at 4:00pm for her weekly lesson. He departed just as promptly at 5:00pm with friendly waves to the rest of the family on his way out the mudroom door. Shortly thereafter, Sam and Ethan Machado dropped Drew off after practice and everybody was home except for Meg. But that didn’t take long either. As promised, the college senior was home by 6pm, ready for family dinner and family night – her last before officially starting her final semester of college. Ashlyn and Ali had both invited Charlie to join them but the young couple went their separate ways, knowing they’d be together again the next day.

“Did you get them all Lily pad?” Meg teased as she nudged her youngest sister sitting to her right on the banquette seat at the nook table for dinner.

When the kids had been little, the typical seating arrangement for family mealtimes had been dictated by practicality, first and foremost. Once the twins were out of highchairs, Ashlyn sat in the middle of the long banquette seat at the back of the nook with a kid on either side of her. Similarly, Ali sat in one of the chairs across from her wife, in between the other two kids. That way they could each reach a child for whatever reason. If someone joined them for dinner the newcomer usually took the chair at the end of the table or the ‘L’ bend banquette seat at the other end of the table. As the kids got older the seating arrangement ceased being nearly as important and by now it was hardly ever considered.

But when Meg was home, everybody wanted to be near her, and that included at mealtimes. It was cute but also kind of a pain in the ass for the tall redhead. She was a sweet person so she tried to keep her siblings happy and pay attention to who had sat next to her at the last meal so she could spread herself out a bit. But it was a lot of work and sometimes she just plain forgot. Dinnertime on school nights could be chaotic because different moms and kids were in and out, coming and going from and to different practices or rehearsals or lessons. That helped Meg because it limited the number of siblings jostling for a spot close to her.

Tonight, however, it was a full-on family night – and Meg’s last one before school started up again for her – so the stakes were high. 

Lily and Josie had won the most common challenge that their big sister ever gave the kids – who could be the nicest to their siblings. Meg had told them for years that she loved it when they were nice to each other, and also to other people. That was always going to be her benchmark for the kids. If she ever had to pick one sibling over another, she always said something like, ‘I’m picking Drew because he was really nice to Lily and Tahlia today and let them have the basement to themselves for an hour after school’. Today Meg chose Lily and Josie to sit between at dinner because Drew and Dodge had been complete punks to each other during a pretty big fight downstairs right before dinner. Drew, sitting in a chair across from his three sisters, seemed fairly nonplussed about the whole thing. But Dodge, sitting in one of the other chairs with Ashlyn between he and his big brother, looked crestfallen. Those were the breaks though. Actions had consequences.

“Yep” the youngest blonde replied happily, popping her p as she plopped the last shrimp onto the extra plate next to her own. “That’s the last one. Yummmm...” she hummed as she dove into what was left of her Shanghai rice noodles with Shrimp dinner after removing every single medium-sized shrimp from the dish.

“There’s gotta be a better way to get just rice noodles though” Meg shook her head and laughed, raising her eyebrows in Ashlyn’s direction across the table.

“Not really” the older blonde replied with a chuckle. “The shrimp are the easiest to pick out, so that’s why she gets it. She likes the flavor but won’t eat the chicken or pork or beef or shrimp.”

“Works for me” Drew stood up, reached directly across the table to where Lily was sitting, and snagged the plate full of shrimp for himself.

For all of Drew’s picky eating habits, which had gotten better over time, the kid loved shrimp. He loved it in all ways too: fried, boiled, sautéed, raw like shrimp cocktail. The key, both his moms realized early on, was the cocktail sauce. When he was younger he used to just use ketchup but as he got older he developed a taste for more spicy things. One of his favorite things to eat nowadays was spicy chicken wings. Along those same lines, real cocktail sauce with horseradish in it had replaced straight ketchup for all of the teen’s shrimp consumption.

“I want one!” Josie frowned from her seat on Meg’s left. She was worried that her brother’s speed had cost her a shrimp or two. She liked shrimp, but not nearly as much as Drew did. 

“Your brother will be sharing them” Ashlyn nodded to her left at Drew. “Don’t worry.”

“Don’t forget you have fried shrimp in your pupu platter” Ali added, looking from Josie to Dodge who were sitting across from one another at the table and were sharing the pupu platter that they almost always ordered when the family got Chinese food. 

The brunette was sitting at the end of the table on the banquette seat, almost tucked away and out of the fray. Ashlyn had seated her there on purpose, hoping it would convince Ali to stay seated throughout the duration of the meal. That was something extremely rare and difficult for both moms. Somebody always wanted or needed something that required a mom trip to the pantry or fridge or sink. 

“Mom’s right” Ashlyn smiled adoringly at her beautiful brunette. “There’s plenty to go around so everybody eat up.”

Ali blinked back at her wife a couple of times in reply. She would never, in all her years, get tired of seeing that look on Ashlyn’s face. Good stuff indeed.

After they had devoured their beef with broccoli, sweet and sour chicken, Moo shi pork, pupu platter, Shanghai rice noodles with shrimp, chicken lo mein, and pork fried rice, the family moved on to dinner clean up, and chores. In the front living room, Ali and Meg played Uno with the kids not involved in clean up and chores while Ashlyn supervised everything and Drew did his homework in the dining room. Everybody reconvened at 7pm for dessert and the family movie.

It was Meg’s night to pick the movie and Ali remembered wistfully how the redhead and Ashlyn had squandered the night they had planned to watch a Hitchcock movie together over the weekend. The brunette sunk her tired body down into the corner of the big ‘L’ bend couch in the front living room with a sigh and tried to get excited about whatever kid-friendly movie Meg would surely choose. The redhead was always considerate of her younger siblings and tried to pick things they would enjoy. Meg exchanged a quick glance with Ashlyn as everybody dug into their highly individualized bowls of ice cream. Ashlyn nodded and winked back. Ali caught the exchange and was trying to process what it might mean when Meg cleared her throat and spoke.

“Ok so it’s my turn to pick the movie tonight and because it’s my last night I’m picking something that I really want to watch” she looked carefully at the four youngest in the room, a small hopeful smile on her face. “I hope you’ll give it a chance. But if you don’t, it’s ok. You don’t have to stay...”

“They DO have to stay” Ashlyn interrupted quickly. “They can use their tablets if they don’t want to watch, but they have to stay here with us.”

Ali’s curiosity was completely piqued and she giggled at the confused looks on Dodge and Lily’s faces as the twins took in the strange new rule for that family night.

“Alright, now lookout” Meg said as she made her way back to the couch after putting the movie in. “I’m sitting right...here” she moved Frankie off the couch and took her spot right next to Ali, picking up her ice cream bowl from the coffee table and making herself comfortable.

“Hey...” Dodge frowned playfully when his biggest sister took the spot he had been on his way to. 

Dodge was a very good snuggler, if he was tired enough, and he often found the person who wasn’t feeling great and kept them company. This is partly why he went and sought out Ashlyn to say goodnight when she was sick a few days earlier. Of course he was going to cuddle up next to Ali that night.

“Sorry buddy boy” Meg laughed and patted the empty spot to her left instead. It was also her way of making up for choosing Josie and Lily for dinner seatmates. “There’s room for you here though.”

Josie, Drew, and Lily were all still hovering around the coffee table and their ice cream, not concerned about seats just yet. Ashlyn made sure everybody had what they needed, placing the last water bottle on the coffee table before taking her seat at the other end of the couch, the one nearest the recliner by the doorway to the front stairs.

“What is this?” Drew asked, his face squished in confusion as he moved himself and his ice cream to the recliner in true standoffish teenager fashion. The opening credits of the movie were just coming up and it didn’t look at all like a kid movie.

“Oh Megski...” Ali sucked in a breath and patted Meg’s thigh right next to her. “You didn’t.”

“But I did” the college senior beamed and bumped Ali’s shoulder back. “Is it ok?”

“Of course it’s ok” Ali enthused, still a few notches lower in energy than usual because although her head was feeling much better, she was really tired. “So much better than ok.”

“But what is this?” Josie repeated Drew’s unanswered question, turning to her left to look at both Meg and Ali and wondering what their inside joke was.

“It’s a Hitchcock film” Ashlyn replied with her own smile. “It’s called ‘The 39 Steps’ and it’s one of the very first ones he ever made.”

“It’s a thriller” Ali’s face lit up as she talked about one of her favorite movies. 

“Is it scary?” Lily asked nervously as she took the last open spot on the couch, between Josie and Ashlyn.

Ali thought for a second before replying, “no, not really.”

“This is an old movie” Drew added as he watched the tv skeptically. “It’s got no color...look.”

“Yes, it’s black and white” Ali chuckled and then shared an inquisitive look with her wife.

They had often wondered when and how to introduce the Hitchcock films they loved so much to their children but there never seemed to be a good time or a good way. They didn’t want to force the movies on the kids and they knew that the kids probably wouldn’t enjoy them or even understand them until they were older. But Meg had dabbled in the Hitchcock movies on her own recently. One of her favorite memories was of watching the second half of ‘Vertigo’ with Deb two Thanksgivings ago, right after Mike Christopher died. That had been the beginning of her dabbling and that was why she had been eager to watch one with Ashlyn and Ali this month while she was at home. She finally felt ready to appreciate them.

“If you don’t want to watch it, go get your tablet...” Ashlyn suggested amiably enough. She wasn’t going to ruin the evening by making unrealistic demands on anybody. “But bring it in here and use your headphones.”

“It’s not very long” Ali added. “Give it a try first, you might like it. It’s pretty exciting.”

“Yeah but what’s it about even?” Dodge asked as he pushed his now empty bowl onto the coffee table and returned to snuggle into Meg’s left side.

“Well, it’s something Hitchcock does in lots of his movies, a theme of his I guess” Ali began to explain. “A regular guy, an everyman, has to go on the run because the police think he killed somebody...”

“Wait, so he’s a bad guy?” Josie asked, genuinely intrigued.

“No, he’s innocent, there are bad guys chasing him too, but the circumstances make it look like he’s guilty so he runs away to try and find the real killer and prove his own innocence” the brunette continued her explanation.

The 1935 classic was one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best early films and one of the last he made in England before moving to America. It was a fast-paced, nail-biter that saw the protagonist repeatedly escape capture while working with various different women in his quest to discover the truth of what happened. 

“This is the movie where the ‘Hitchcock blonde’ first appeared” Ashlyn nodded approvingly as she read from her phone. “My favorite.” 

None of the kids seemed convinced in the least, but they all gave it a shot. If nothing else, they were happy to be with their biggest sister and their moms and included in something so adult. Soon, one by one, they went and retrieved their other electronic devices to keep themselves entertained during the boring old movie. Everybody but Josie. The young redhead crawled up towards the corner of the couch and squeezed herself between the back of the couch and Ali’s legs, resting her head on her mother’s thigh as she watched the strange movie. If Meg loved it then Josie would give it her full attention – it was that simple.

They stopped the movie once, so Dodge could pee, and then one more time so Lily could. Ashlyn told everybody to go to the bathroom because they were not stopping it again. It was cute because even though the twins weren’t really watching the movie they didn’t want to miss it while they were out of the room. They turned the volume off on their tablets rather than wear the headphones too. They wanted to participate and did their best to do so. Except for Drew, of course. He put his headphones on and gave the movie half of his attention, but at least he didn’t bother anybody about it or become a distraction.

“How you feeling?” Ashlyn followed her wife into the kitchen during the final bathroom break.

“I’m ok” Ali stopped at the foot of the backstairs and gave her keeper a soft but tired smile. “Just gonna go up and pee real quick.”

“Listen, baby, I know you have your ultrasound in the morning...” Ashlyn closed the distance between them and put her hand on the brunette’s hip as she spoke. “And I know you’re not going to cancel it” she continued, raising her voice just a bit over the objection that Ali very predictably started to raise. “So I won’t even ask you to” the blonde smiled and pecked her wife’s lips.

“I’m fine honey, just tired. I promise.”

“I know. I believe you” the keeper spoke the truth.

Ashlyn could see that her wife was feeling much better and, aside from being exhausted and maybe a bit run down, was perfectly healthy. It had happened to both of them before – you didn’t feel great the night before and you went to bed and let your body duke it out and fight whatever ailment was trying to take hold over you. When you woke up you felt better. Ali had gone through the same thing last night, but her body had just reacted to it oddly this morning. Ashlyn believed it and felt good about it, finally. But she also knew that the night before her ultrasounds, Ali liked to have some quiet time and take one of her soothing baths. She liked to get her head right for something that still scared the shit out of both of them if they let it. The schedule for their evening hadn’t accounted for that and the blonde wanted to make sure her wife was ok with it.

“So...what then?” Ali tilted her head as the woman of her dreams kissed her lips again. Lovely good stuff.

“You’re missing your bath and I want to make sure that’s ok” Ashlyn spoke softly as she let her hand gently squeeze the brunette’s hip. “Because we can stop the movie...”

“No, no” Ali shook her head and smiled broadly. “I love that we’re watching this tonight. Absolutely love it!”

They both grinned, equally pleased with the evening’s activity and impressed by how well the kids were tolerating it. They knew part of it, probably a large part of it, was the magic of Meg. But the two moms were still going to claim the win for themselves anyway. 

“I know, me too” Ashlyn nodded as her dimple appeared. “But I know how important your mommy time is tonight” she used the childish phrase they had used to describe to the kids when Ali needed some alone time to center herself before her ultrasounds sometimes.

“Babe, I promise you, this is even better than my bath” Ali reached around and hugged her wife. “This is perfect, just what I needed, thank you.”

As she watched the rest of the movie, Ali looked around the room at her family. She took her time and studied each person, appreciating them for their unique qualities and personalities and loving them a little bit more because of how sweetly they were behaving during Meg’s special family movie night. Their positions and reactions could not have been more true to form for each one of them.

Lily had one eye on her tablet and the other on the tv screen, unable to choose one over the other. She wanted to continue designing outfits on her tablet game but she also wanted to participate in the special movie Meg had chosen. As a result, she inadvertently deleted one of her favorite creations in the game and she had absolutely no idea what was going on in the movie.

Dodge was curled into Meg’s left side, fast asleep and drooling on her sweatshirt. His busy engine and body still crashed earlier than everybody else’s. The sometimes aggressive, maturing youngster still was the sweetest of the kids at times like this. It was hard to believe the same boy who had fought so hard with his brother before dinner was now clinging to his big sister’s sweatshirt while nuzzling his head into her lap.

Josie’s dark blue eyes were fixed on the tv as she desperately tried to understand what she was watching. Her focus was intense and it seemed at odds with the girlish way she cuddled into her mother’s right leg. The redhead studied the screen even as she allowed Ali to pet her head and rub the top of her back every so often. Josie was grown up in so many ways but still just a girl in so many others.

Drew’s trademark half-smirk covered his face as he occasionally looked up at the movie, dragging his attention away from his friends’ texts and his own video game. The smirk, Ali knew, wasn’t what it appeared to be. Her first born, her sweet boy, was shy and awkward by nature. And when his teenage brain couldn’t comprehend something, he fell back on that smirk without even thinking about it. Instead of resting bitch face, Drew had resting smirk face. But what Ali focused on that evening was the fact that he had remained with them in the room. Even though Ashlyn had laid out the rules, both she and Ali would have been fine excusing Drew if he had asked. They knew they couldn’t force him to do things forever. But he hadn’t asked them for an out that night. He had chosen to stay with his family and that meant the world to the brunette.

Meg sat so close to Ali that the brunette couldn’t see her without turning to face her at point blank range. But that in and of itself was perfect Meg. This grown-up Meg, this young woman sitting there next to Ali, was something else. She was as thoughtful and kind as Ashlyn and she was the most patient big sister anyone could ask for. Meg had a unique relationship with all four of her siblings and she met them on their own level, in their own headspace. That was the trick. The kids all responded to her because she went out of her way to meet them at least halfway. Not all big sisters did that. Even tonight, the way sweet Meg used her movie pick to watch one of Ali’s beloved Hitchcock films – the brunette wasn’t sure if Ashlyn had influenced her or not but just that fact alone spoke volumes about what a lovely young woman Meg had become.

And Ashlyn, sweet, wonderful Ashlyn. The origin of all of the good stuff. So much of her soft, amazing heart lived in each of their kids, all five of them. She could be tough and demanding but they all knew it came from a place of love. She was never mean or cruel, no matter how angry she ever got. Ali may have been the planner and the manager of the schedule, but Ashlyn was just as important, if not more so. If Ali was the coach, Ashlyn was a hybrid of the star quarterback and head cheerleader. Neither mom could achieve success or even survival without the other. Theirs was a true, symbiotic partnership that simply got better and stronger over time. And that was the Ashlyn as mom and wife. 

The Ashlyn who was Ali’s soulmate and lover was who took the brunette’s breath away at least once every single day. The Ashlyn who had taken such sweet and gentle care of her that morning when Ali had been feeling out of sorts – serving up the precious good stuff with every soft touch and caring word - that woman was unlike anyone the brunette had ever known. Ali never thought somebody like Ashlyn could exist in the real world. They had been through so many ups and downs in their 18 years as a couple and still Ashlyn treated her like a queen, showering her with the very best of the good stuff. Yeah, so she couldn’t handle vomit or spiders – so what? That didn’t matter to the brunette. If Ali had to clean up puke and kill spiders to get to spend her life with the most amazing person she had ever known, then she was just fine with that. It wasn’t even a fair trade-off as far as Ali was concerned. The way Ashlyn made her feel and the way Ashlyn treated her and the way Ashlyn respected and honored her all the time...Ali would have done almost anything to get to share this world with someone like that – anything. 

It had been a hell of a challenging week for both moms, but they had made it through, just as they always did. They had made it because they never gave up, no matter what. They always focused on the good stuff. The good stuff was what held them together, through thick and thin. The small things that didn’t look like much on the surface, but meant everything to Ali and Ashlyn as they moved through their days and weeks and months and years. The quick kiss goodbye on the way out the door. The squeeze of a hand on a hip while discussing the evening plans. The sweet and silly nicknames they used for each other. The kind and thoughtful gestures that filled every day. The loving pat on the butt in passing. The warm, safe hug that supplied strength to both of them, regardless of what was going on. The good stuff was what it was all about. They both knew that, together, they could tackle anything that came their way whether it was a week-long stomach plague, or a near-death experience, or something as simple as shoes and bras left out and in the way, or spiders in the shower. 

The life Ali and Ashlyn had created for themselves and their family in the big old house was built on the good stuff. Their life was wonderful and dynamic and challenging and chaotic and full of love and they wouldn’t change any of it, not one bit, not ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And since I won't be posting during She Believes, here's hoping that Ali gets meaningful minutes and continues to show everybody why she deserves a spot on the Olympic roster. Keep crushing, Queen!!!


End file.
